Sister Pierce is Called to Serve: Bath: "The City of Ships"

December 7, 2015

Happy Monday!! I hope you all are doing well! So this week was a little challenging, because our investigators, Stephen and Yulia decided to ignore us all week, after they stood up their ride to church last Sunday. We were trying to contact them multiple times, but they never could meet with us. So we eventually just did a stop by (I love how missionaries have the privilege of doing that. We always seem to come unannounced, and people don't mind! At least they don't mind that much...). When we saw Yulia, she was just explaining how she has been having problems with certain people, not Stephen, but someone else, and I had to resist the urge of just playfully saying, "is it us?" But, the spirit constrained me. Sister Black was glad the spirit did that. Haha I've noticed that I've become more of a blunt person since I've been on my mission. That could be a good thing, or a bad thing... Anyways, once we told her that we were going to have to stop seeing them for a while her whole countenance changed, and she was excited. That was pretty sad for me to see. We have the most amazing gift to give to people, and they just reject it! The gospel truly is a lifestyle, and I'm learning that more and more as I have been working with investigators and less active members. I am so grateful that I was raised in the church and that I have never fallen away.

This week, we also started our Christmas initiative of #ASaviorIsBorn. If you haven't seen the video yet, check it out! It's literally just 2 minutes long, and it will brighten your day! https://www.mormon.org/christmas I just love christmas. It really is a special time of year. Everyone is in a giving mood and are generally more kinder. It makes missionary work a whole lot easier! A funny thing that happened a couple of weeks ago was when we knocked on this man's door (sister black and sister crook knocked on that door a few weeks before I got there, and sister black said we should try it again even though he wasn't interested). I knocked on the door, and he starts to walk down the hallway. He flipped on the porch light, I waved at him, he waved back, flipped off the porch light and turned around to walk back to his kitchen. How rude!! It was actually pretty funny, but we were kind of just in shock at the same time. Hahah at least he didn't open the door and slam it in our face. That was a plus side.

Last night, we were able to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. That was so great! I love this time of year! It always makes the holiday so much more magical with all of the lights, music, and holiday cheer. And, it makes it better when you can hear words spoken from general authorities. Oh man, this truly is the true church and the men and women who lead it are so inspired and spiritually powerful! I love the power to the spirit and how he truly can touch every one of us if we just let him.

This morning, sister black and I had a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch a military ship set sail for the first time! They have been working on this ship for the Navy for 8 years, and today started day one of a seven day sea trial. This ship is 614 feet long, but it has no right angles on it. So, on the radar, the ship shows up as a 44 foot long ship!! There were also 411 people on it today (one of those people is a member in our Ward) but, it normally would just have a crew of 147. That was so cool!! So, what did sister black and I do 2 weeks before Christmas? Well, we went to the beach...to watch a ship make its first maiden voyage! So cool!

Anyways, i hope you all have a great rest of your week! I love you all!

Keep PUSHing!

Sister Pierce