I need some Love down here in Thatcher...

OK, family, here is the deal, I will write you an email, but I need some compensation. I need some love down here in the (928). So, whenever you are free you can write me. Even if you are not free. You can write me. I give you permission.

Anyways, now that that is taken care of, how are you? I hope everyone is doing well. I know I am.

First off, Happy Birthday Aunt Karen, Hubby, and Elder Moore!!!

Things are going great here in Thatcher. Just like McDonald's, I'm Lovin' it. We have a lot of work going for us right now. We have a lot of good solid investigators as well as some good solid potential investigators, so now the task is to just Baptize them all. Hmm, nothing that i cant handle. Anyways, things are going great with Daleray, he is such a stud. I love that kid. He is still working towards the 5th as of right now, but we might need to push it back a week or so just in case. We want to make sure he is ready and willing to make these important steps in his life. He wants to invite some of his family to is as well so they can be a part of this spiritual journey with him. He is an amazing individual. He is completely ready, I feel, to make these steps and to progress continually in the gospel. So awesome.

So the other day, we saw a lady in our apartment complex that we see all the time. She is usually out with her dogs letting them "take care of business" if you know what i mean. But this time we saw her and said hello and then she responded with something I wasn't ready for. She said "You guys are just always so happy and in such good moods, I'm jealous"....That really hit me pretty hard. People know who we are. They know what we stand for. And most of them know what we teach. But they don't know why. They don't know why we do the things we do. Why we believe the things we believe. Or why we are in such good moods and what causes such a strange phenomena to the eyes of the natural man. Through are dedication and obedience to the commandments of God, we are blessed with so many things. We are blessed with one the Holy Ghost and its guidance, but we not just have the Holy Ghost. We feel the Holy Ghost, we literally feel the love of God in our lives and have a greater understanding of his purpose and direction. We are blessed with a purpose in this life, a reason for living and going through the things that life puts us through. We know where we are going after this life. We know where we came from. And we know why we are here. This is why we do the things we do.

As we are obedient and desire to follow our Heavenly Father, he watches over us. He takes care of us, and blesses us with his love. Why would we not want that in our lives? Why would we not want to be literally guided in all that we do by his loving hand? Why would we deny him the opportunity to bless us with his care? This gospel is so simple and so easy to understand and follow. I would not want my life to be any other way than guided by him in all I do.

I love my heavenly Father so much. I love his influence in my life and hope to always live worthy of his direction. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ, and what he did for me. Through him I can return to live with my Loving Heavenly Father once more. Without the atonement of Jesus Christ, without his suffering in the garden and ultimate sacrifice on the cross, without him conquering the bands of death and being resurrected, none of this would be possible, the world would cease to continue and the plan of happiness our Father laid out for us would have been useless. I love him. I love this gospel, and I love all of you. I hope we will all continue in our lives relying on our savior Jesus Christ just a little bit more and turning to him more frequently in our times of need. I love you all. So much.

Love, Elder Pierce

Fore.....

02-22-11

So, its really cool how much 2's are in the date today. I thought it was pretty nifty. Anyways, how is my wonderful family doing? And how are my wonderful friends and everyone else that reads these things ???

So today, has already been way awesome. We started the day out in just the perfect way by going to the temple! It was amazing like always. It was nice to just be able to relax from all the craziness of missionary work and take a breather. you need it every now and then you know?? So that was just wonderful. As I was in the temple, I started to think about something President Uchtdorf said last general conference. "There is beauty in simplicity". I took the time to really analyze that and think about how true and wise that is. A lot of times in life we get caught up in the hectic mentality of the world and how busy it can get. But when we have the chance to just take a step back and realize how beautifully simple the world is. How beautiful and simple the gospel of Jesus Christ is. We take so much thought of how we have to do this and that to be ready for the ward party this Saturday or how we have to organize the chairs a certain way. All of these things I have seen on my mission that are involved in the workings of the church, when really the church is centered around a different thing. The atonement of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice on the cross. Through him we can be forgiven of everything we have done in this life. To be able to stand spotless before God at the last day.(3rd Nephi 27:20) What is the true meaning of the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints? Who will bring the ham for the Christmas party? Or the Sacrifice and atonement of Jesus Christ? Our Savior and Redeemer. (But definitely don't forget the ham, its delicious haha)

So we have been having a lot more success lately. It has been so awesome. I love being able to share the gospel with people. It was really funny as well this weekend in church. Because of Presidents day weekend a lot of people have been going out of town. I underlined a lot for a reason haha. And So church attendance in one of our wards was really low. Even all the speakers decided to go out of town. But the meeting pressed on and Bishop Stapely had our ward mission leader go up and bear his testimony and talk about missionary work, and after he did that, I was thinking "...we're next" haaha, sure enough, after the rest hymn, Bishop invited the two full time missionaries to mosey their way up there and bare their testimonies. It went really well though. I always enjoy the chance I have to bare my testimony no matter where I am or what I am doing. It is the most precious thing I own.

We should be having a baptism soon, on the 5th of March in fact. Then hopefully 2 on the 19th. That is what we have set for right now. We are working with a lot of really cool people right now. Everyone we have set for baptism is on the football team, then these girls we are meeting with tomorrow are all on the basketball team. Its really sweet how the influence of one individual can change the lives of so many people. It is really quite incredible the way the Lord works through 1 person to bring to pass the salvation of many. Our Heavenly Father is just amazing. I love him so much and my love continues to grow everyday. Everyday I see his love and care for us in every aspect of this work. I know that through the love of him and the love of our Savior Jesus Christ, anything is possible.

I love you all so much.

Love, Elder Pierce

Now Thats Cold !

Hello family, things are going well here with me today.

Boy do I have some crazy new for you guys. The other day, we had to drive to Tucson for another ZLC, and while we did so, we had to wake up at 4:30 a.m. to start getting ready. Well let me tell you what, it was so COLD that day. We met with our ride and both our car thermometers said that it was 6 degrees outside...6 degrees??? With wind chill factor, someone told us it reached -5 degrees. Boy that's cold. To let you know I'm being honest, there is evidence. Our pipes in our apartments froze. The pipes on the campus froze and ruined a classroom. The pipes on a stake center froze and now the congregation has to meet somewhere else for 3 weeks because of the damage. Crazy business. So it was cold for like 3 days or so but it has mellowed out and somewhat warmed up. So I'm happy with that. We went and played racquetball this morning and it felt kinda warm compared to what we had been feeling. So that's some crazy news for you.

This past week has been more successful than lately. Which is something I'm really happy about. It is actually really awesome. We have been informed of some potential investigators that have been coming to church for the past few weeks and have flown under our radar...I thought I smelt baptisms! They are some more girls from the basketball team and another young gentleman who has 6 LDS roommates. The two girls are very receptive and open to the gospel and learning new things.

10 Months Down Today!!!

Hey family, how is it all going for you? It has been going great for me!

My thumb is doing alot better, I hurt it again when we were playing football, but its still fine.

-We had interviews this past week. IT was combined with a zone training where me and Elder Clark had to give an hour long training on how to be better missionaries and how we can get our investigators to church more effectively. I felt it really went well. We were able to teach them quite a bit involving our investigators. The interview went really well. Me and elder clark got interviewed together first where we went over with president walker how the zone is doing and potential leadership this next transfer. It was actually a very fun interview. Being a zone leader, I have been able to see the personal side of president Walker more and more. It has been a very fun experience thus far. I am really looking forward to working closer to president Walker. Im very disappointed that he wont be my mission president the whole two years.

January 17, 2011

Elder Clark-Passenger Seat

Well hello family, another awesome p-day again.. If I do say so myself. Unfortunately I was not able to email at the normal time because we were to busy celebrating Martin Luther King JR. So everything was closed. But the EAC library opened at 6 so we get to email now. 
Just a couple quick updates on the way our week has been going...
-Elder Clark, put scratches and dents in the car so we get to walk every where we go until Wednesday, and I mean everywhere. Now i know how it feels to be in a full bike area....YUCK.  It makes it really tough, when you cover the entire town and also neighbortown (Pima + Bryce). 

I Love being a Missionary so Much.

So family, 

How is it going this past week? It has been a relatively good week thus far.

This last week, we had what is called ZLC. Zone Leader Council. Its where President Walker calls all of the Zone Leaders together and trains us on how to be better Zone leaders and how to better our areas. It was a very spiritual experience where he made a quote that he says all the time but really stuck out to me this time. "the speed of the leader is the speed of the team". Which is so true. Our Zones or our areas will only be as effective as our areas our. We have to set the example as leaders to further progress them and their areas. It is so important for us to be as obedient as we can so we can set the proper example and set the speed of which our team is to travel. We must set the pace and be the ring leaders of this crazy circus of missionaries.

 

We are gradually improving and we are taking care of business. We have been going on exchanges this past week to try and boost up the areas. We actually blitzed Elder Patterson's area and also Elder Manumaleuna's area. (blitzing an area is where both sets of missionaries work in the designated area to increase the work in the area.) Both days we did that each area taught a minimum of 3 lessons with at least 1 new investigator. When previously they were teaching 1 for every 2 days. It was a very cool experience being able to help out the zone and help out individual areas. When I went on the blitz with Elder Patterson, me and him had the amazing opportunity to skin a raccoon. Yes, skin a raccoon. An experience I never thought I would have in my life has now been accomplished. Mark that one off the bucket list haha.  

Other than that, things have been going quite nicely. Like I said, the zone is gradually starting to pick it up numbers wise. We have been training and making sure that the companionship's are counting their "honest contacts". The contacts are going down but the other areas of numbers are progressing. As we focus on contacting people the way the Lord would have us do it, the work becomes that much more effective. I love being a missionary so much. I love everything about it. Despite how challenging it is sometimes, I wouldn't have it any other way!

I love you all so much!!! Have a great week!

LOVE,

Elder Pierce