Sister Pierce is Called to Serve: First Week in the Field

Hello from MAINE!!!! Although there's still TONS of snow around (like seriously, there are snow piles everywhere! It looks like someone is starting to build a house or something! haha) it is beautiful! All of the houses here are New England style (obviously, since I'm in New England), but I've never seen so many Victorian-styled houses in one area. So cool! Also, there are so many white houses out here, so the residents end up painting their doors a bright, random color. It makes driving down the streets a little more bearable since you can see a little splash of color here and there, instead of just white white (houses and snow). Also, they have so much granite here that the sidewalk edges are granite! So cool. We also have the ocean in our area. we haven't driven down to see it yet, but we will. I'm excited to see the Atlantic ocean and all of the lighthouses in Portland, Maine!

So here's a brief recap of what I did last week...Last Monday, we flew out from Salt Lake and stayed at the mission home the first night. On the flight, I was the only sister missionary traveling with, I think, 10 Elders! Weird. Luckily there was a sister traveling with us from Salt Lake to Michigan so I could go to the bathroom with her...that would have been awkward to have 2 Elders waiting outside the bathroom door for me...haha. When we got to Manchester, we met President Stoker and his wife. It was so surreal to come down the escalator and see two smiling faces waiting to greet us and welcome us to New Hampshire. It was also weird to walk around the airport wearing missionary tags. I've never had so many people look at my face, look at my tag, then look away. When we got our luggage, we waited for 4 more sisters to arrive (YES! More sisters!) Unfortunately, they are here waiting for their Visas to Australia, but at least I wasn't the only sister anymore! President Stoker told me that if those sisters weren't waiting for their Visas, I would have been the only sister coming into the mission. That's kinda crazy.

Then, on Tuesday, I met me trainer (Sister Craig) and was told I'd be serving in Saco, Maine. She's been serving for 6 months and is from Boise, ID. It's been fun to get to know her more over the past few days, and she has definitely forced me into missionary work! When we first got to our area, the first thing we did was street contacting. I never had practice with that in the MTC, so that was pretty awkward. You have to stop someone in the middle of the sidewalk to talk to them and invite them to listen to a message about Jesus Christ. We got quite a few nos, obviously, but it was good to experience. Since then, we have done lots of tracting and a little more street contacting. I'm pretty comfortable with both of those now!! Pretty amazing how you can grow so much in just 6 days!

We also taught a few lessons to investigators: the Beam family and Alex. I don't know much about the Beams, but they're nice! We're teaching 3 kids (ages 9, 10, and 20) and then their grandmas listens to the lessons as well. Our goal is to get them to church this week so that we can reschedule their baptism date since they haven't been to church yet (they have to go to church 3 times before they can be baptized).

Alex is awesome!!! He grew us Jewish and has recently been baptized into the Baptist church. He's also a mural painter, and each room of his house is a different theme. I've only seen the living room and the kitchen, but those are pretty awesome (Spider-man and Alice in Wonderland). So cool. On Saturday we taught him the Plan of Salvation, and he is so excited about it!! He texted us and said (while reading the pamphlet) that it's "not boring, so cool, and awesomeness". haha pretty great. He's definitely making me more excited to teach investigators.

Earlier this week, we visited a Senior Living Center and helped them bowl. That was a blast!! It's so fun to see their spirits being lifted and see their competitive sides come out. :) You're probably wondering how they bowl...haha so there were plastic pins, rubber bowling balls, and then they used a ramp to push the ball down. It was great!!

I love missionary work already and am so grateful to be serving a mission. The gospel is true and the Lord is on our side. All we have to do is put faith in Him, do all that we can, and He will do the rest. He leads and guides us everyday, and I'm so grateful to have this gospel in my life.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!

Keep P.U.S.H.ing (Praying Until Something Happens)

Sister Pierce