Baptism day

Yay for Spanish!

Haha, I love opening my emails and seeing everyone asking about M and D and how the baptism went. Thanks so much for your prayers for them and for me! D=BAPTIZED&CONFIRMED :) :) :) It was so great! Both her and M gave their testimonies afterwards and it really was incredible. The Spirit was so strong. It is crazy to think back over the last few months. There was the time when we thought they had dropped us and they decided to look for another church, the time when D wasn't keeping the Word of Wisdom, and many other challenges along the way. All worth it! :) They both seemed so happy. It was a very special day! This week we had an appointment set up with C. She still has a lot of challenges to overcome, and we've been giving her a little space, but she still is awesome and has a lot of potential! Anyways, we stopped by to see her, but she wasn't home. Her roommate, P, was home though so we talked to her for a little bit. We've met her before and she actually has come to church before with C too, but she has never showed any interest in talking with us. But, as we started talking to her, we realized that she actually does have a ton of questions and a big desire to know more! She grew up Catholic, but never understood why church was important or why Christ is important. She had always been told what to do- read the bible, pray, go to church, etc. but she never understood the 'why.' She said that she really wants to know, but no one has ever explained anything to her! It was such a sweet miracle and we are really excited to start teaching her and helping her to progress! She already has shown that she is willing to attend church, and that is the hardest part for probably 90 percent of the people we teach! On Wednesday night Hermana Wiggins and I took a little road trip to a tiny little town called Waseca which is about an hour and a half away. We worked all day Thursday with the English Sisters in that area... Normally we would have done an exchange and one of them would come up to Lakeville, but that would be a little tricky since they don't speak Spanish! The day went okay, but by the end of it I was just so grateful that I am a Spanish-speaking missionary. :) I don't know why it is actually harder to teach people in English now. I guess because culture is such a huge part of it. Yay for Spanish! It is freezing here. This is the 4th day this year that school has been cancelled due to cold weather. We are having a partial lock down. We are allowed to be out to do emailing right now and shopping and then we are allowed to go to our appointment tonight with Karla and the kids :) But, then we have to be inside for the rest of the night. :( Brrrr! I'm excited for another great week of being a missionary and seeing miracles! Hope all is well! Love you so much :) Love, Hermana Pierce This is a response to some questions I had for her. Hi Dad! Robert (the deaf member who was recently baptized) is probably like 70 something. And we have someone who signs come with us to translate. Nothing new yet with E and M. They work super late and were really busy last week so hopefully we can get in contact with them this week! No, they didn't come to D's baptism. 12:00 in the afternoon is hard for everyone... It doesn't matter if it is Saturday in the Spanish-speaking world. They all work all day 6-7 days a week. So our ward is an English speaking ward, but Spanish speaking people attend it. It's called a 'magnet' ward. There are a few people who can translate for us, so usually we don't have to, but we do have to set it up and get it coordinated which sometimes is difficult when we are also trying to get investigators to church and all the other missionary stuff haha. So, investigators have the talks translated for them and then also some of the members who don't really understand English. There are 2 Spanish wards in Minnesota... 1 is in Minneapolis and is the ward that Hermana Crosby is working in now and the other is a smaller one in St. Paul. There are several branches around the cities as well, but ours is not one of them... at least for right now.

Christmas pictures

Israel, Jesús os llama

Buenas Tardes familia! Esta semana pasada fue muy bien. Tuvimos muchos milagros y yo estaba bien contenta. Cada semana aprendo algo mas sobre la obra misional. Que bien que siempre tenemos la oportunidad de progresar y mejorarnos! This is the week that D is getting baptized!!!! M received the Priesthood yesterday and Saturday he will be baptizing his wife. :) I'm so happy for them!! I know I have said that like a million times but now it is finally happening this week! Yay!!! It is amazing what the Spirit has done. She went from having so many doubts to having a very strong testimony about the Church. And she never had a big moment where she 'got an answer.' But she was able to recognize the Spirit and feel the peace and happiness. :) One fun little moment that happened this week was right after our lesson with Robert, the deaf man. He was baptized this past summer and we meet with him once a week to have what he calls 'bible study.' Haha. Anyways, you know how in the foyer of the Church there are sort of some shelves up above the light? There isn't anything up there but it is just some open space? Not sure if that make sense, but Robert made a sweet paper airplane and landed it on one of those shelves. It was hilarious. He started jumping up and down, did some fist pumps, and absolutely went crazy. I wish I had it videotaped. :) The best moment of the week was when we had a lesson with these two guys E and M that the English Elders had ran into about a week ago. Wilberto came with us and it was probably the most spiritual Restoration lesson I have ever been in. So good! They were so interested in learning more and really loved the message. E knew some people from his home in Guatemala who were members and he always liked them. I'm so excited to see what happens with them! Yesterday was also a very great day. Usually Sundays are so busy and I usually get absolutely nothing out of the talks because I'm too worried about all our investigators and translation and missionary stuff. So even though it was unfortunate that we didn't have very many people at church, I actually was able to pay attention and it was so good. The Spirit was so strong and I was able to get a lot of revelation! Between that and the weather being up to about 39 I was so happy all day! We reset a date with O. It isn't until March 15th, so it is kind of a long ways away still, but we know he still has some needs. Although he honestly is very prepared on a doctrinal, intellectual level, and in a lot of ways on a spiritual level as well, we realized he still needs to be show that he is completely committed before making a sacred covenant with Heavenly Father. So we are being patient and just going to keep helping him as best we can! Hermana Wiggins and I are doing really well together too! From the very beginning we have had a lot of unity with our teaching. It has been super natural for us and we work super well together. I really like her a lot. She is very fun! It is so weird though... I was with Hermana Crosby for a long time, and had gotten used to the way she was, and then bam! Someone new with a completely new temperament and way of doing things. Because of it though I have learned a lot about myself and how I can improve. It is really interesting the constantly-having-to-adjust-to-other-people thing! Haha. Les Quiero mucho! Que tengan una buena semana! :) Hermana Pierce

All is well, all is well

Hello my wonderful family, Lots of things have been happening here! The days inside were no fun. By Tuesday I was practically jumping for joy that we got to leave the house. We had less time than normal this week to work because of being inside, and then a leadership meeting that Sister Wiggins went to and Zone Conference! However, we still had a really successful week and lots of miracles! D is still right on track for baptism on the 25th of January!! I am so happy and excited for her and M as well. :) :) :) Unfortunately we had a few more setbacks with O and so as of right now it is looking like it will be sometime in February. One night this week I felt like we should go see him. We normally have members go with us because we can't go inside his house alone and he also lives far away so it is better when members can drive. However we didn't have time to set anything up and the Spirit just said go now. So we did, even though we didn't know how it was going to work out. We walked up to his house and he was outside on the porch... smoking. Apparently he hasn't smoked for 12 years except for one other time a few weeks ago. Satan is working on him so hard and I really hate it! It was not fun to walk up to, but I knew we needed. One, we needed to know that was a problem for him, and two, he needed to feel guilty about it. We did not let him off easy at all. It's all good though because we saw him again later in the week and had a great lesson. He told us at first when he saw us he was upset because we kind of made him feel bad, but then he realized it wasn't us, but it was the Spirit and he should not have been doing that. Also, his uncle just passed away very unexpectedly the other day too. So he is going through a lot right now, as I can understand well, but we are trying to help him turn to the gospel and to Jesus Christ. Hopefully everything will work out okay with him and he can get baptized soon! A lot of other investigators we have are doing super well and really starting to show some good progress. No one else is super close to baptism at the moment, but it is all step by step. I've probably mentioned before C and N, these two wonderful kids we teach. Their mom has never taken an active role in the lessons. She usually just sits in the other room, but lately she has been joining us and it has been awesome! She is really confused about religion. They are Catholic, but she said she doesn't know if it is the true church. The kids are awesome and already have come along ways and I think they will be so helpful for their mom too! :) One really great thing I learned this week was from Zone Conference. We talked about prayer and studied two talks from Elder Bednar from Conference in spring and fall 2008. I would encourage you to read them!! One thing President encouraged us to do was to pray with more gratitude and pray for others and not focus on praying for ourselves. If we pray with a heart full of thanks and ask that Heavenly Father blesses others, He won't forget our needs and we will feel the Spirit more. It isn't to say you can't pray for the things you need or for specific, personal direction, it is just that Heavenly Father knows and will bless you with what you need as you express gratitude for the blessings He has already given and seek to put others' needs above your own. I have found this to be so true. The last few days I have been focusing on these two things and I have noticed a huge and immediate difference in my happiness! Les quiero mucho! Espero que todo este bien con cada uno de ustedes! Gracias por todo lo que hacen- sus oraciones, cartas, apoyo, y amor! ♥Hermana Pierce

Love from the frozen tundra

Hey Family, I am writing to you today, (Saturday) because on Monday the high is -16 and with the windchill it might be about -50 :) So that's nice. President Clements let us know today that on Monday we will not be allowed to leave home at all, so I won't be able to write then. It has been super cold, but I really haven't cared that much... It is going to be a different story this coming week though! Apparently this is the coldest it will have gotten in like 10 years. Great things are going really well here! O now has a date set for January 18th! We are working so hard to make sure nothing falls through. It is a push for him, but he needs it and he is ready. Yesterday we taught about tithing and he basically taught it to himself. We were about to tell him about the things the money is used for and he told us we didn't need to. He said "I know the money is going to God, so He can do whatever He wants with it and I don't need to know." It was great! He committed to paying tithing and now he has been taught everything he needs. He is so ready! What a miracle it has been to see him progress to this point! He will be such a great member! M and D are also still doing incredible. D has a date set for January 25th. M will be having some 'classes' about the Priesthood during the upcoming weeks so that he can have his interview and receive it and then baptize D. :) I love them so much and am so so so so happy!! They are both such great people. D especially is absolutely hilarious and we have such a good relationship! It is so awesome to be able to like people so much on a personal level and then at the same time truly love them and watch them come unto Christ. We also have found a few new people with some great potential as well so I'm very excited for that! I hope you are all doing well and that you have been able to see the influence of the Holy Ghost more in your lives. Thank you for everything you do and know that I love you SO much!!! :) Love, Hermana Pierce