Pictures Sept 25

Answers to prayer

Hey familia, This week was really good! Not a whole ton happened, just the usual, but I learned a lot and was very happy this week! This past Sunday was the best I´ve had here. They have all been good, but this Sunday was meant for me. Every part of it was great, but especially when we watched a devotional from Elder Scott. He talked about prayer and about how we get answers. I have been praying since I got here for a few specific things and I felt like I hadn´t gotten an answer until Saturday! I had been slightly frustrated for the past several weeks- I felt like of all the times in my life, right now I should definitely be able to get one... I have power and authority as a missionary and all I do is related to the Gospel, so why couldn´t I get an answer? I had some experiences leading up to this time and I realized what I really needed was to have more faith, and to be okay if I didn´t get an answer when I wanted. Finally, an answer did come. And then in Elder Scott´s devotional he said that when we feel like we aren´t getting an answer, we should be grateful... because it means that the Lord trusts us enough to have faith and act on our own for a while, so that we can grow even more. And an answer will always come, just in the Lord´s timing. It was really cool! I know that Heavenly Father really does answer prayers, and it is important to have complete faith and trust in Him, and then be patient. Yesterday, I had another really great experience. Hermana Valdez decided that we needed to have a district inventory. (We have companionship inventory each week and talk about strengths and weaknesses). It was very needed and very good. Our district, although we have made a lot of progress, as a whole, has not been doing our best. I won´t go into the negative things that have happened in our district, but there is definitely immense room for improvement. Hermana Valdez had us talk and make specific goals for our final week, and then she shared with us part of a talk called the 4th missionary. Super bueno! I will forward it to you... It´s super long, but the important part is the qualities of the 4th missionary. That is what I want to become! I want to give my whole heart, mind, might and strength to Heavenly Father and this work! I only have 17 months to be a missionary and I don´t want to hold anything back!! Don´t freak out, but on Monday I think I got a minor concussion. We were playing volleyball and an elder spiked the ball straight into my head. I am totally fine now but I was pretty sick the rest of that day! It could be worse though... and Elder in our district chipped his tooth playing rugby and had to have stitches and had to go out into the city to a dentist to get it fixed! I wish I could video us playing soccer here. Its like a movie. There is usually Mexican music playing super loudly from outside the wall to top it off! It is so fun! I can´t believe I am on my last week in the CCM! It has gone by very fast although it seems like an eternity ago that I first arrived. I really just want to learn a ton this last week and practice more what I know... Mom, I told you last time that we had an english fast and you said you thought that was how it was all the time anyway... Well, that would certainly be nice, but there are so many Americans here and so we aren´t exactly immersed in the language. We have this thing called Hable Su Idioma (Speak your language) which means we are supposed to as much as possible. We do speak a lot, but its hard because we are all at different levels of understanding and speaking and so we usually have to translate what we are saying. Our conversations are always in spanglish. We don´t have a ton of interaction with the natives either, unfortunately. However, today we went to the temple and I understood even more than last time! Pretty much every word actually! I just need to get better at speaking! We are going to try as a district to do a lot better at speaking Spanish siempre. Ok, so I fly out Wednesday morning at about 6am. Which means I leave the CCM in the middle of the night. I should be able to email you guys on Tuesday, but I don´t know what time yet. It will probably have to be later at night. I´m not 100 percent sure, but from what I´ve heard I should be able to call you guys on Wednesday when I´m leaving also. I need to find out for sure, but I think the only person who probably knows is the President because literally no one can give me a straight answer about if and when I can call. So, if I have any choice in the matter I will call when I get to Texas, but I will have to let you know for sure on Tuesday. Mom, have fun on your trip! I would say just go on Wednesday because I can´t promise a time when I can email you! Sorry!! And as far as the car, just do what you think is best! Pray about it and I´m sure it will all work out! :) I trust ya! Dad, thanks for sharing the stuff about stake conference. Sounds like it was good! Brad and Brooke, Write me! Also, how is puppy pants? Well, I hope you all have a great week! Gracías for your emails! ¡Les quiero! Hermana Pierce

Pictures from Mexican Night Celebration

Viva Mexico

¡Buenos Días! This week was awesome. A lot of simple, but good things happened and I really had a lot of fun! Actually, this week started off on a bad note. Thursday morning when we got to our class we found out that one of the elders in our district went home. He had left late the night before. I don´t know what is going on in his life, but we were all really sad. It has been different without him because we have all gotten to be such good friends. :( All we can do is pray for him right now! Anyways, other than that, it was awesome! Some hermanas moved into our casa and now Hermana Ficklin and I have roommates. They are a week behind us but had to move because there were problems with the water in their casa. There names are Hermana Bennett and Whitmore. They are super nice and it is actually really fun having them there! Hermana Whitmore went to China for five months to teach English before she came here and so that has been really fun to hear about. I had some good experiences with my investigators and the scriptures too. Nothing crazy happened, but I got to see more of how the Spirit works in small and simple ways. One thing I´ll share.. We got our investigator Amanda to be baptized, but because she has a boyfriend that she lives with, we had to tell her that she needs to get married or move out. So, we were a little nervous to talk about that with her. Keep in mind this is in Spanish too so our word choice is extremely limited. Hermana Ficklin and I prayed about it and prepared the best we could. We ended up having a wonderful lesson. It was SO good! I guess I just keep learning again and again that when you listen to the Spirit, it works out. She has to talk to her boyfriend, obviously, but she wants to get married! This week I also had the opportunity to talk to Hermano Hardy one on one. It was so good. I am so grateful for both him and Hermana Valdez because they care so much about us and really want to do all they can to help us be the best missionaries possible! Hermano Hardy gave me some much needed encouragement! Just a sidenote, he actually played rugby at Highland when he was in highschool... So Forever Strong is kind of his life! Anyways, he is awesome and always knows exactly what to tell us. Our district has done a much better job at being dilligent this week too. It´s tough when you want to study hard but everyone is talking and getting distracted. This week was way better though. We decided that we should pray before every study hour and I think that has helped a lot! I also think the reality that we are going to be in the field in 2 weeks has started to sink in more and that has helped as well haha... One thing this week that us four Hermana in the district decided to do was have an English fast. Monday we did not speak english at all- unless we said ¿Cómo se dice __? (How do you say__) if we absolutely didn´t know the word... I also had coaching with Hermano Hardy that nigh which was in English... but other than that solomente español. It was kind difficult, but it was fun and since we all did it together that helped! During gym time this week I played soccer a few times. It was SO fun! There is just something about playing fútbol in Mexico. :) Also, I told you last week that this week was Mexico´s Independence Day. Craziness. We basically had a fiesta Saturday night. My pictures didn´t turn out too good, but we all gathered in the gym and there were dancers and singers, and a cool video about Mexico. It was a fiesta. haha, all the natives were going insane. Then, Sunday night they had us stay up and go to the gym again to watch a live broadcast of the President of Mexico address the nation. He said some things that I didn´t understand and then he said the names of people in Mexican history that contributed to helping them gain their independence and then we all shouted ¡Viva! after each name. Pretty cool! Although I was not happy because I was sooo tired and didn´t get to bed til probably midnight. Haha, it is so funny how late that is now. But, usually I am asleep by 10:40. Everything is coming along! I am really excited for when I am actually good at Spanish, but I am grateful for the progress I have made so far. Mom, you asked me if with what I know now in Spanish if I would be able to speak to the Mexicans at Snoasis... Eh, I really don´t know. I´m sure it would have been better, but I can´t remember what they said now so who knows! Haha and yeah if you are saying "I don´t speak" you say No hablo and if you are saying "you don´t speak" you would say no hable I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! :)

More pictures from CCM in Mexico

Half way through the CCM

¡Hola! It´s great to hear from you guys! Just so you know, I am allowed to print out emails and read them so don´t feel like you have to be super brief because I can read them throughout the week! Dad and Brad, that would be so cool if you got to go to New Zealand! When would it be, I didn´t really understand... Let me know what happens with that! Anyways, not a whole ton has happened this week so I´m sorry if I don´t have too much to say! Today I got to go to the Temple again, which was awesome! We go every other week, so I have one more time left. It takes about an hour each way and the driving is insane. If there are lanes on the roads, no one uses them. And there are always people walking though traffic trying to sell things. It´s super fun to see the city, but it is crazy! My español is getting better... I can at least understand most of what people say, unless they talk really fast! The days are pretty much the same... Breakfast, personal study, class/progressing investigators, lunch, language study, gym, language study on the computer, planning, dinner, and class/progressing investigators... There is little variation so there really isn´t too much to talk about! We had our Tuesday devotional though yesterday which was really good! The Area 70 who spoke said that like 40 something years ago when this place was made a school, Elder Romney profesied that it would be a place where people learned Spanish... or something like that... (The man speaking spoke 0 english and the translation was a little rough) but anyways, at the time they didn´t know what that meant because everyone who came to school here already knew Spanish... When it was announced that this school would become a MTC, that prophesy was fulfilled! It is so cool to be a part of! Also, this week has been very Patriotic because on the 16th I believe is the Mexican equivalent of the 4th of July... It is their independance day... So we have had all sorts of fun Mexican treats this week and the comidor (cafeteria) is decorated with all sorts of things. The best treat was coconut in a lime... I don´t know how to explain it but it was so delicious. On Saturday we also get to see a presentation in celebration! Not sure exactly what that means, but we´ll see! Oh! Before I forget again... There is sister here, Hermana Howell who is going to the Twin Falls mission! She got here the same day as me and lives in my casa. She is so nice! You have to look out for her. I´m going to give her your names so hopefully you can have her and her companion over for dinner or something. :) We have continued to have lessons with our teachers- Hermana Valdez and Hermano Hardy- whose investigator names are Amanda and Renato. The lessons have been okay, but nothing spectacular. It has been hard trying to figure out what their needs are and we only have 20 minute lessons... which is basically enough to say like 3 minutes worth of things in English. Haha... It has been kind of hard too because usually I talk a lot more than Hermana Ficklin, mostly because it is easier for me to speak in Spanish... Although she really is getting so much better! But the other day we had our lesson with Amanda and I kept wanting her to say more, but she didn´t so I pretty much talked the whole time. Afterwards she talked to me and said she really wants to contribute more and she felt like she didn´t get the chance to. I´m super glad she said something, because we were definitely not on the same page: which is critical in a companionship! I thought she didn´t say anything because she just didn´t know what to say or didn´t have anything to say, and she just felt like I hadn´t given her enough of a chance! So, that is something for us to work on. Oh, mom you asked me if I can leave the CCM. No. Only to the temple by bus. We are fenced in and the outside world is very dangerous. We do, however get to talk to locals on Thursdays for TRC. We´ve only had one so far (last week) but tomorrow we will get to again. Members come here and we share a message with them and try to communicate the best we can. Hermana Ficklin and I met with a girl named Carmen, who was probably in her mid-20s. During the lesson we had her read a scripture. She read it and then just started laughing so hard. Hermana Ficklin and I both said ¿Cómo? (What?) like a million times but she just kept laughing forever and wouldn´t tell us. I asked her if she was laughing at our español and she said no... she was laughing because she had read the verse really fast and thought we probably didn´t understand a word of it... Which was true, I wouldn´t have if I hadn´t read it before. Haha... it was interesting for sure. And Mom, we have a laundry room in our house with 2 washers and 1 dryer. We only have 13 hermanas in our casa so it isn´t too bad! Although they have been doing some work in there this week so I don´t know where I´m going to wash my clothes today! And yes, I remember to read the labels. :) There are birds everywhere around here. There are some parrots that are bright green and actually really cool, but I can´t even begin to count how many times a bird has scared me... They have almost flown straight into me! So, Hermana Ficklin really likes birds and even had pet birds at home. One day, after a bird almost hit me, I was complaining about how much I do not like them. I said something about how one time a bird almost pooped on me and I really hope that never happens as long as I live. Well, the next day guess what happened. Luckily it was only a tiny bit and didn´t get on my clothes or hair or anything.. just a little on my leg! I was so mad though! Hermana Ficklin thought it was hilarious. That´s pretty much been my week! One thing I have really come to love a lot since I´ve been here is reading my scriptures. There is so much power in reading them.. If you want to be happier, read scriptures! It is so great starting out my day with an hour of study and then reading throughout the day too! I love it. Most of the time I can´t wait to get to Minnesota, but I really like it here too. It is so open and beautiful. I´m very lucky. The CCM is on 90 acres of land and there are about 800 missionaries here currently. Well, I love you all! Keep sending me emails and letting me know what is going on! Love, Hermana Pierce

Week 2 and loving it more and more

Hey Familia, This week went by so much faster than my first week! It was really good! There were a lot of ups and downs in it, but overall pretty good. I am so sad to hear about Puppy Pants! I was actually for some reason worrying about her yesterday and hoping she was okay! And Mom, thank you for finding out about my watch. That´s totally okay, I will be fine to wait until Minnesota. I´m glad you didn´t send it actually because I found out the address was the old one. That is one example of how no one tells you anything here. No one gave me the right address and pretty much everyone was confused about it. We do have a schedule, but it is just the little things that you have to figure out on your own. For example, Hermana Ficklin and I had been doing personal study in our rooms after breakfast, but then just found out this week we were supposed to be doing it in our classroom. Most things really aren´t a big deal, but it has been interesting trying to figure out what we are supposed to be doing, haha. Up until a few days ago we were only in class for a few hours in the morning and then we were just left to study and prepare for investigators the rest of the day. It´s all good though! Last Thursday, we had our final lesson with Pedro and he accepted baptism! It was so cool! We just bore our testimonies the best we could in Spanish! The next day, Pedro became our new teacher. His name is actually Hermano Hardy and he is so amazing. He has taught me so many things already, especially about getting personal revelation. He is pretty strict too which is really good, because our district needs it. I really do love my district, but it is so hard to stay focused because they are all loud and easily distracted. We kinda had a little chastisement about how we needed to be better and remember this is the Lord´s time not ours. He had us pray for 15 minutes and ask Heavenly Father what we needed to do better as individuals. I felt like there was a lot I could improve on and Heavenly Father really did tell me specifically what I needed to do better. One thing was not really expected and that was to pray more. Hermana Ficklin got that same answer too so we have been working on praying before everything we do. That was an awesome experience! The food is still really good! I think it is actually getting better. Almost every morning I have a waffle with nutella and chocolate syrup and then some cereal. We have a lot of chicken, lots of rice, and different kinds of soup! I haven´t been disappointed with anything so far. I am kind of missing some American foods, though. Oh, I also forgot to tell you last time, but they do have purified water and they also gave us water filter bottles exactly like the one I brought with me so no problems there! And my foot is pretty much completely better. Sometimes at night my toes feel a little swollen, but there isn´t much I can do. It just is the elevation. During gym time I have got to play a little tennis with the worst racquets ever made and also some ping pong! Haha, I humbled the elders. It was hilarious. Every day they ask me for a rematch. :) I miss playing with Brad though! It just isn´t quite as fun! There is a lot less smack talking, hehe. Oh, mom you asked me last week if I felt an earthquake. I did not, but twice sirens have gone off and we have had to go to these designated circles. Apparently it means there will be an earthquake, but so far I haven´t felt anything. It rains here almost every single day and sometimes there is lightning and thunder that is incredible. I love it! We have two new investigators this week too. Amanda and Renado. (They are Hermana Valdez and Hermano Hardy) We have had one lesson with each and neither went particularly well, but they weren´t bad either. It is really awkward with the first lessons because getting to know people when you can barely understand them is difficult. Hopefully our next ones will be better! Spanish is definitely coming along. There are times when I get pretty frustrated and just want to be fluent already, but I God called me to be a spanish-speaking missionary for a reason. So I´m trying to be patient and just have faith. Yesterday our district met up with another district and one-on-one taught each other. The district we were with was on their last week here. The elder I was with told me my spanish was really good and that he is excited for me, since it was only my second week. That was really encouraging. I wouldn´t say my spanish is really good, but I know a lot more now then I did two weeks ago! I really do love being here, but I am really excited to leave too. I just really want to be in Minnesota! Well, I love you all! It is so good to hear from you and I´m glad things are going well. Brad and Brooke, good luck with school! Try to learn spanish if you can because if you go on a mission and have to speak it you will wish you had known more before! Haha. I will try to send some pictures too! Love, Hermana Pierce P.S. this is my actual address in case you want to send letters... They should make it without a problem Hermana Brittani Pierce Minneapolis Minnesota Mission Mexico Missionary Training Center Carretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828 Colonia Zona Escolar, Gustavo A Madero 07230 Mexico, Distrito Federal Mexico

Pictures from Mexico

0/Bus+ride+from+airport+to+MTC.JPG" />