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