Happy Thanksgiving

Buenas Tardes! Sorry this is a lot later than I usually write and also sorry becuase it is going to be pretty short! This week is different becuase of Thanksgiving. So I have less time to write today and then Thursday is my P day but I can't write then. Anyways, thanks so much for the treats! Haha I've been trying not to eat everything in there all at once! I really love the wassail in there though. yum!! :) We had a busy week! We were able to teach 13 lessons with members this week which is a record for me! One of the best things that happened was that P and S were able to get work off every Sunday and they came to church!!! First of all, when we commit people to getting work off it usually doesn't happen, at least not for a long time. We taught them about the 10 commandments and Sabbath day earlier this week and then they got it off within 2 days! We haven't had time to follow up on their church experience, but I think they liked it. D, P's 6 year old daughter loved Primary, even though she was scared to go at first! The only unfortunate thing was that all the talks were about family history, the temple, and tithing! All topics that we haven't even begun to talk about... so I just prayed the whole time that they could feel the Spirit and that they will have a good week and notice a difference! I love them so much and am so excited to see them making changes in their lives for the better! They really want to follow Jesus Christ and they have shown they are willing to act in order to do so. :) Another miracle was that O also was able to get work off! There was this big huge ordeal with his boss, but finally he got it so he never has to work Sundays! Unfortunately, his phone stopped working and he wasn't able to coordinate with us or a member who was going to give him a ride, so he didn't make it this Sunday. That was dissappointing but he should be able to come next week! Overall we are just teaching some really great people and my love for them is growing so much. Each week I recognize the Lord's hand in my life more and more and my faith is growing too. :) There are still so many ways I could be doing better; so many things I could improve, but I am learning to be patient with others and especially myself. I am so grateful for the Atonement and the opportunity it gives me to improve each day and try better. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know me personally and are helping me every day. Since I started my mission I have grown to appreciate more the knowledge I have of the Gospel. It is such a blessing to be serving as a missionary, and I learn to love it more and more each day. I love you all so much and am so grateful for the wondeful family and friends I have in my life! Thank you for everything and have a happy Thanksgiving!! :) Love, Hermana Pierce

Pictures from Minneapolis

Muchos Milagros en Minnesota!

Hola familia! Que tal? Wow what a week. It flew by. I swear I was just sitting here writing you guys like yesterday. Anyways, amazing things happened and I learned a lot this week. There is this lady, G, who the missionaries had taught before I got here, but she is super hard to get in contact with. Finally, we were able to have a lessons with her. It has been months since she last had a lesson from the missionaries, but she said that just a few days before her son, F, had been asking about us and wanted us to teach him! This week, we were able to have a lesson with him and it was awesome! He is 20 and decided he doesn't want to do what his friends are doing- drinking, partying etc. He has so much faith and really wants to learn more about God. He said yes to getting baptized! We haven't been able to see him again but I can't wait til we do! He is a perfect example of how the Lord prepares people to hear our message. He had been making changes and shared experiences with us and we testified that his faith will continue to grow and he will find the answers he is looking for! Also, we have still been teaching P and S. They are the best. I am always SO happy after teaching them. We are going to be teaching them about the 10 commandments and Sabbath and then hopefully Word of Wisdom this week. Please pray for them! They are so awesome and sincere, but they will definitely be faced with opposition because they have lots of changes to make! So I had some incredible things happen to me that taught me a lot about prayer. I have been working on having specific prayers rather than just 'please bless so and so...' Friday we had an awesome day lined up. We were going to have 4 lessons with members plus several others. Hermana Crosby and I were super excited to go have a great day with lots of work! Thursday night I prayed for each of the people we were planning on seeing. I prayed that nothing would interfere and that we would be able to see everyone and it would all work out. The day started out great. We went and saw a sweet less active lady named M. She is really nice and has lots of faith but also lots of health problems so she never makes it to church. By noon though, we got a series of cancellation calls/texts and were left with nothing until dinner time. Seriously everything fell through. I'm sure you've noticed by now that this happens a lot. You'd think I would just be used to it by now. I'm not. I'ts frustrating. Hermana Crosby and I were both pretty frustrated. We both had the same thought to drive out to Apple Valley even though it would kill a ton of miles and we didn't really have a plan once we got there. Apple Valley is where O lives. (I'm sure I've told you about him before... He is so close to baptism, living everything other than coming to church... things keep getting in the way like work, his car breaking down, you name it) We haven't had contact with O for over a week because something happened to his phone. We decided to go try and knock on his door though. He didn't answer. From his doorstep I looked at the road and saw a truck drive by. I couldn't see the people inside but I somehow knew it was O. About 5 seconds later he called us. It was him! He had seen us outside his doorstep! He was with a friend doing something. We planned to meet back in about an hour and in the meantime went and found another person to teach a restoration lesson too! When we got back with O we had a great lesson with him. Seriously what a miracle. The timing was so perfect! He told us that his friend usually takes another way to get to his house but had decided to go that way and drive right past O's house. :) We actually had another lessons in Apple Valley too with a lady we had taught several weeks back. She actually had done her reading assignment! We are going back to see her this week. I think the only thing that actually went as planned on Friday was dinner. Afterwards we went to M and D. They live with M's sister and her family- the Rileys. Both Brother and Sister Riley speak Spanish and often join our lessons. We had a plan to teach about prophets, but Brother Riley was really set on watching this 30 min church movie called Together Forever. He had mentioned it to us before and so Hermana Crosby and I watched it earlier in the week to try and plan a lesson around it. We decided against it though because it was unbelievably cheesy and we didn't really think it applied to M and D. Well, Brother Riley really wanted to watch it and we were in his home so we weren't going to argue. It actually went really, really well. M and D definitely felt the Spirit! I think it was good too because instead of us trying to teach them more things and shove more doctrine at them, they had the opportunity to just feel the Spirit and be taught by Him. I know they are going to get an answer soon because they really are trying! Afterwards we were supposed to go teach this lady named C and her daughter K. C wasn't home though so we just taught K and her friend N who was also there. They are about Brooke's age! The lesson was about the Book of Mormon and it went so well. At one point K said, and I quote "I think I would like being a Mormon. My life would probably be a lot better." :) :) :) She was also super excited to read the BM because she has tons of questions about what we are doing and what is going to happen one day etc. We told her the Book of Mormon has those answers and she said she would definitely read and pray about it! Basically Friday didn't go as planned at all, but it was much better because we had so many miracles. It felt so good to know that we where God wanted us to be, even though it wasn't where we though we should be! One more awesome experience I had with prayer was the next day. It was with A. I had been praying specifically that she would read the Book of Mormon and pray for answers because that is what she has been struggling with. I prayed that she would feel the Spirit and not be able to rest until she had read and prayed. Also, that she would have more of a desire to read. Saturday, she described a voice in her head telling her that she should read. She kept feeling like she should and then she did and as she has begun reading more she really likes it! At first she didn't want to read, but now she does! It was such a cool experience for me to see that Heavenly Father does answer prayers- sometimes the way we want and sometimes not- but either was He does. :) Also, other great news! Back at the beginning I told you about C. She had decided she wanted to go to the Catholic church instead of ours after we had a Law of Chastity lesson with her. Well, we had a nice surprise yesterday and saw her at Stake Conference! Apparently her life has been super hard the last few weeks and she knows that she needs to get baptized and make changes!!! :) We will be seeing her this week several times and hopefully getting a date set ASAP! Well, sorry that was a bit long. Hehe. It was just a great week and I am loving it more and more each day. My Spanish is finally getting to the point where I feel like I can express at least kind of what I am feeling haha... Still a ways to go, pero esta mejorando. (but its getting better) Les queiro mucho! Gracias por sus correos de electronico y sus oraciones y amor! I love you all so much! Thank you for your emails and prayers and love! Love, Hermana Pierce

Pictures--Hold to the Rod; 1st snowfall

Great week

Hello! Wow time is flying so fast! Already a whole transfer done in Minnesota! I am staying here to finish my training with Hermana Crosby. :) I had another great week in Lakeville! Once a transfer we get to have a district P day and get to do things with the other missionaries. Last week we went and played laser tag and also played some bball and dodgeball at the church! Super fun! I'm super excited for today too, because we are going with some members in our ward to Minneapolis to do some sight seeing! I'll take pictures! Last Monday we also had a super fun FHE with K and her kids! They are adorable. We talked about Lehi's dream and made an "iron rod" out of those wrapping paper tube things. Each of the kids got to hold on to the rod and we would give them scenarios and give them choices of what they would do. If it was something good they got to go forward on the rod until they made it to the 'tree of life' where the 'fruit' was waiting. The fruit in this little activity was cookie flavored. :) They are so cute and I love them so much! I have some other really good news! M and D, the people who we thought dropped us last week have actually decided not too and are still going to be searching for the truth! On Tuesday there was a President's fireside in Bloomington that was really good. They came with us to that. I don't know if they got anything out of it, because they were super tired but at least they came and haven't given up yet! Later in the week we sat down with them and they expressed their concerns. Basically they are trying to find an answer, realize they need to do more on their part, and are going to do what they can so they can find an answer. Please pray for them that they will be able to recognize an answer soon! They are such a sweet family; they just don't see the blessings that this gospel can bring them yet! So, at the fireside, Elder Godoy of the 70 came. We also had mission conference with him the next day! He is awesome. He's from Brazil originally and hilarious. The conference was very good and then afterwards we had lunch and he sat by me. He asked me where I was from and he said that this week he will be in Twin Falls! He's doing something with the stake presidents I guess. I'm not really sure, but I thought it was cool! Recently we started teaching these two girls, P and S. They are roommates and very sweet ladies. P has a daughter who is in 1st grade. They work crazy hours like every single person we teach, but they are very open. Every time we have had a lesson with them the Spirit has been so strong! Hermana Crosby and I were pretty bold from the beginning that they are going to have to make changes in their lives but the blessings that await them are wonderful. I'm really excited to see what happens! This week was just a week full of great things. We taught a Restoration lesson to this couple, A and D. They have a very strong faith in God. They shared with us some experiences they've had and how they know that God really does answer prayers. Angie was astounded when we told her about Joseph Smith's experience. We told them we know it is new and different from what they've heard, but invited them to pray about it. A said she definitely would. She said it would be one of the first things she did! Such an awesome reaction! A lot of times people say things like, "ummm okay I guess yeah I'll pray maybe sometime I don't know we'll see." We asked them what it would mean if the Church of Jesus Christ really was restored on the earth today. D said it would definitely clear up a lot of confusion. I'm super excited to go see them tonight and see how their experiences were! :) I know for sure that if they actually did as they said and prayed about it with a sincere heart they will get an answer. I have a funny story for you guys too. We were teaching this girl named M about the Restoration. She's the one we taught last week about the Plan of Salvation. Anyways, she has absolutely no knowledge about the Bible or prophets or anything like that. We were trying to explain the concept of authority and Hermana Crosby used an example of an ice cream truck driver vs. a cop. What would you say if an ice cream truck driver pulled you over and wrote you a ticket? Probably not listen and tell him to leave. What if the same thing happened with a cop? You would listen and pay the ticket. So we were talking about this and how it is relates to Priesthood authority and then she interrupted and said, "wait, but what if the ice cream truck driver had a gun and threatened to kill you?" Haha. One of the sweetest moments this week was yesterday. We were teaching these two kids, C and N. We were teaching about the Plan of Salvation and about how we lived with Heavenly Father before we came here. C said, "wow I learned something new today! I didn't know we lived with God!" I asked him how that made him feel and he said it made him so happy. Those kind of moments are what make it worth it. It is the best thing ever to watch the joy that the truths of the gospel bring to people. Especially to sweet children like them. :) Last night there was a Thanksgiving concert at the church. It was with different religious groups from the community. We as missionaries ushered at it and then got to enjoy the night and listen to the music! Such a fun treat! Also yesterday W, the man who was baptized in July received the Priesthood! The spanish ward in Minneapolis is going to the temple to do baptisms and he is going to go! And we are also to help! :) The bishop of the Lakeville Ward, Bishop Mason, talked to Hermana Crosby and I yesterday too. He gave me a new perspective as he talked about how what we face as missionaries- watching people again and again not keep their commitments and the frustrations that comes with that- is a small taste of what the Lord deals with all the time. Every one of His children breaks their 'commitments' as they sin. Yet He loves us unconditionally. Wow, I can't even imagine how frustrating that is to have every single one of your children fall short every single day. Well, I love you all. Thanks so much for the emails! Please send me letters too! It is super fun to get mail! :) Love, Hermana Pierce

Pictures - Temple, splits, bike

I can do this, but only with His help

Hiiiiii!!!! Great to hear from you all! I'm glad things are going well. :) Wow, missionary life is such a roller coaster of ups and downs. This week had some pretty extremes of both. Overall there were more good things, but a couple of big disappointments as well. C, the girl who I was probably most excited about because of how well she is prepared (the one we taught Word of Wisdom to in like 5 minutes), dropped us. It was devastating. Satan works so hard against these people. She ended up getting a boyfriend and didn't want to make the changes. :( Also, M and D, a cute couple who have been progressing and coming to church every week decided they are going to look for another church. So, that was rough. It is so sad to know how much the gospel will bless these peoples' lives and do everything you can to help them realize that, and then have them choose to not accept it. No bueno. On the other hand, this week was full of some really great things too! Tuesday Hermana Crosby and I went to Bloomington. She had a leadership meeting and I worked with the Bloomington Spanish Sisters for the afternoon. Hermana Mattson is from California and is a convert of about 3 years. Hermana Pelaez is also a convert and is from Mexico! I had a ton of fun working with both of them. Hermana Palaez is really good at English, but her first language is Spanish and so I learned a TON from her in just a few hours. Then, we went on exchanges and I stayed in Bloomington with Hermana Mattson and Hermana Palaez went with Hermana Crosby to Lakeville. I had an interesting time with Hermana Mattson. Wednesday morning we got up and I asked her what she had in mind for exercise. Kickboxing. Haha, we went to this racquetball court at their apartment and she "taught" me how to kickbox. Hilarious. I definitely got more exercise from laughing than anything else. Haha. The rest of the day was a little rough because she had no one lined up to teach. We knocked doors all afternoon and had some pretty interesting encounters! No one was too interested though and one guy actually freaked out and yelled at us to get off his doorstep. Good times. Actually, even though it wasn't the best day, I did learn a lot and its always fun to see how other missionaries do things. I was pretty happy to be back that night in Lakeville. We taught this one girl, Z who was awesome! Hermana Crosby had met her when we were on exchanges the week before and Wednesday night we taught her the Restoration. She had some questions and thoughts that I felt like I could relate to well. I am super excited to see her progress! So, you asked what I did for Halloween. We had an appointment set up for that night, but it fell through. We couldn't go knock doors obviously, so we stopped by some less actives and a few ward members who help us a lot and brought them some treats. Then we were able to have a lesson later with this lady D who I told you about before. Her husband was there for the first time too so we taught about the Restoration. Friday morning we went to the Temple!!! This awesome lady in our ward, Sister Andersen, took us and we went to lunch afterwards. First time in a long time I heard it in English! It was a very good experience. :) I actually had read a talk earlier in the week called The Temple is About Families by Richard H. Winkel. Read it sometime this week, it's so good! It was given in October 2006. That gave me a new perspective as I went and it made me think more about the importance of families. I love my family SOOO much! I'm so grateful that we have the gospel and are able to enjoy the blessings of the temple. It also put things more into perspective as I am away from my family right now. I miss you all a lot, but this is such a short time compared to eternity. I'm not giving up time with you, my family, because we have forever. :) Haha okay, sorry I haven't been clear at all apparently. I don't attend English class to learn English. Hermana Crosby and I teach English class to Hispanics who do not know English. Haha, we do that every Saturday and it is always really fun. I've told you before that Sundays are the hardest days. I decided yesterday that it was going to be a great Sunday and that I needed to not have an attitude that every Sunday is going to be terrible. It honestly wasn't the best day, as far as things that happened, but I was happy all day :) Also, President Clements has encouraged us to expect miracles all day every day. Yesterday we didn't know who we were going to teach so I said a prayer and asked the Lord for a miracle. And He gave us one! We met this super sweet girl named M. It was a really good lessons about the Plan of Salvation. Normally we teach the Restoration first, but Hermana Crosby and I both felt like the Plan of Salvation was the way to go. It went really well! Overall this week was good, but I realized even more fully that there is no possibility that I could ever accomplish one single thing without the help of the Lord. I was reading my Patriarchal Blessing this morning and realized that the Lord has given me so much potential, but I have a lot do to do be able to accomplish those things. Right as I was thinking about how impossible it seems to reach that, I thought about how the Lord truly can make everything possible. I can do this! I can do this, but only with His help. :) Love you so much family. You are the best and I am so grateful for you. Stay strong and be happy. :) Love, Hermana Pierce