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 

 

The ship!

 Sister black and I with the ship in the background.

The ship sailing off to sea. When we left, you could still see it in the distance. It looked like a pyramid floating in the sea. It was ginormous!

Sister Pierce is in the "Black Bath"

November 23, 2015

Hello all!! Well, I'm back in Maine! I'm serving in the Topsham, Maine
area but living in Bath, ME. And my new companion is sister Black!
...she came up with my subject line. She's pretty great. She's from
Provo Utah and is just like me! We have so much in common, but she's
kinda a punk sometimes...does that make me a punk, since we're so
similar? Ha she's pretty great though!

This week we had a lesson with a new investigator who is 99 years old,
she asked us to read the Book of Mormon to her, and since I was
sitting closest to her, she asked me to read it. We started with the
title page and read to the testimony of the 3 witnesses. Oh my word.
The spirit was so strong!! Both sister Black and I felt it so
strongly, and we know Margaret must have felt it, but she said she was
not interested in being converted. We'll see if her thoughts change
when we read to her this week. It was amazing though. That experience
truly testified to me that the Book of Mormon is the word of God! Even
from the first page, the spirit comes so strongly. I also feel like
there was a stronger spirit because I was reading it outloud, and
loudly. It's amazing how the spirit can come so quickly when you're
speaking, and reading the truth. Being a missionary is the best!

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

Keep PUSHing!
Sister Pierce

Sister black and I (with our Christmas tree!)

 The elders in our ward. They're pretty fun! (Elders Skouby and Cashen)

Thanksgiving & Nine Months Complete!

November 30, 2015

Happy thanksgiving all!! I hope you had a great holiday! We went to a family's home who didn't have an oven...just a stove and an "easy-bake" oven. That made things interesting! They luckily were able to borrow a roaster from their neighbors for the turkey. It all turned out really well! As we were eating with them, I realized that every family has different traditions for holidays, and it made me grateful for my family and also how it truly is a time of year where we can gather as families and talk about what we are grateful for. There are so many things to be grateful for! This is also a great time for service! We were able to do some service this week at a soup kitchen, and we helped organize a member's food storage. That was so fun! It was in their basement, and the basement was truly handmade. It was carved out of a rock and there were little streams in the floor. Crazy. It actually felt like a prison a little, just a lot cooler. Well, I guess a lot cooler looking. I'm sure it would have been the same temperature. Haha 

This week, I hit my 9 month mark! Crazy! I can't believe that I'm in the downhill now. I don't even feel like I've done enough yet! Hopefully that changes with these last few months I have as a full time missionary! I truly hope I can make the most of my last half of my mission and that it doesn't go by too quickly! 

This week we also saw the hand of the lord so many times! Our investigators, unfortunately, aren't progressing that much, but we are still trying to keep our end of the commitment of finding a ride to church for them. We had the hardest time finding a ride to take them to and from church, but we finally found one to take them to church, but not back. They said they wouldn't go if they didn't know if they had a ride back home or not, so we busted our buns to try and find a ride to take them home. After making lots of calls, (at like 7:30 at night) we finally found one!! Unfortunately our investigators stood up the ride and didn't come to church, but at least we were able to strengthen our testimonies of the power of prayer, persistence, and diligence!

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Love you all!

Keep PUSHing!

Sister Pierce

Thanksgiving with the Derr's...yes, those are all Legos behind us....they're legit!

Here's a close up of one of them. So cool!

This week was spiritually stressful...

November 16, 2015

Hello!! So as the subject line reads, this week was pretty intense. It probably was the most stressful week of my life. No joke. On Monday, it was petty mellow, then Tuesday we went to the temple, then after that, the week got crazy. We had so much to do in prep for the baptism, and we were also going on exchanges. Wednesday was going to be Lorraine's baptism interview but her mom canceled it because she wasn't in a good mood. I was freaking out cause I was leaving for exchange, and was going to leave sister Lee with the most intense and
busy days this whole transfer. It turned out that we didn't go on exchanges, and we got the interview done Thursday instead, but that was also the first day we got to talk about the program in detail. That was 2 days before the baptism. Ridiculous. Sister springer also asked me to give the talk on baptism. I felt honored, but that also kicked the stress level up a little. We also ended up printing the programs like an hour before the baptism, when we were supposed to be filling the font... I'm  pretty sure sister Lee didn't know how to handle such a stressed out companion. I didn't even know how to handle myself. Luckily, everything worked out and the baptism was amazing! She was beautiful and was so prepared to make that covenant with the lord. We also had some stress Sunday with getting someone to confirm her, but that ended up working out at well, and it just proved
to me how much the adversary is apart of missionary work when someone is about to make the correct choice of being baptized, and how the lord is truly right there  helping us all along the way. We ended the week with a trio to the JSM and that was amazing! We brought a group of investigators with us and it was such a spiritual experience. Oh! We also had transfer calls. We were supposed to get called on Saturday, but they forgot to call us. So I was really stressing. We got a call Sunday morning right before church, and I found out that I'm being transferred and going to follow-up train a sister. Sister Lee will remain here as junior companion. Crazy week! Hopefully that
didn't stress you all out! Haha but I'm grateful for the opportunity that I have had to serve here In Bedford and get to know all of the amazing people here. I'm also grateful for the opportunity I had to train sister Lee even though it's been quite an interesting journey. Hopefully this next training experience is a good one!

I love you all! Enjoy your week!

Keep PUSHing!
Sister Pierce

Our full district! (Including the assistants)

Lorraine and Brother Colette

Lorraine after baptism with Mom, Grandma, Sister College, and Foxy 

Joseph Smith Memorial

Sister Lee, me and Elder Espinoza

The Lord is in this Work!

November 10, 2015

Hello family and friends! 

Last week and this week we spent a lot of time trying to contact some potential investigators and some LA names our relief society president gave to us. No one has been home, and to be honest, it's been pretty disappointing. Appointments keep falling though, no one is interested, and it's just been challenging for me. However, yesterday was a life-changer! Well, mission changer, i guess. Since we went to the Temple today, yesterday was a regular day, so we tried to contact some LA again. Some weren't home, then, we tried a lady who just happened to be outside about to rake leaves. We offered to help, and she knew who we were, and didn't want anything to do with us. She said she already did the whole Mormon thing like 4 years ago. After that comment was made, the conversation took a turn! She then had so many fond memories about the church and the people there, and she lit up! She did not look happy when we first got there, but once we started asking inspired questions and showed her that we cared, she opened up to us, and committed to come to church!!!! She hasn't been for 4 years, and after a 15 minute conversation, she is going to come! She also said that we made her day by stopping by! I felt great! After weeks of disappointment, we finally got something good out if it! Then once we left her, we went and street contacted into this guy who was pretty interesting. His name is "Mr. Wonderful". Haha I'm pretty sure he wasn't all there, but it was an amazing experience for me. Since my first area was tons of street contacting, I realized that I feel really comfortable in that area, and as we were talking to him, I felt like I was "home". I felt like a real missionary again! Just the things I said, how happy I was, how excited I was to talk to someone about the gospel, it was great! Then we saw another LA who we haven't been able to see for a while, and when we saw her, she was in really poor spirits. After visiting with her for a while and talking about prayer and the atonement, her spirits were lifted, and she said we made her day as well! Oh man, I really love missionary work. It's the best thing ever! To see the lord work in the lives of others and see how much He is a part of this work, it's simply amazing. 

We also had zone conference this weekend at the JSM. Elder Neilson came (the general authority over the missionary department) and it was amazing! I got chastised by the spirit a lot though (which President Stoker said is a good thing, because it means that we're actually listening...), but I learned so much more about the importance of working in unity with your companion, as well as the atonement. The atonement is amazing! 

Here is one of my favorite quotes from a talk we read in preparation for it. It's from April 2014 conference, "Bear up their Burdens with Ease", by Elder Bednar. 

"Thus, the Savior has suffered not just for our sins and iniquities--but also for our physical pains and anguish, our weaknesses and shortcomings, our fears and frustrations, our disappointments and discouragement, our regrets and remorse, our despair and desperation, the injustices and inequities we experience, and the emotional distresses that beset us.

    There is no physical pain, no spiritual wound, no anguish of soul or heartache, no infirmity or weakness you or I ever confront in mortality that the Savior did not experience first. In a moment of weakness we may cry out, “No one knows what it is like. No one understands.” But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He has felt and borne our individual burdens. And because of His infinite and eternal sacrifice (see Alma 34:14), He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy. He can reach out, touch, succor, heal, and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do relying only upon our own power."

The Savior is truly with us and knows what we're going though. He understands the times that we are hurt, depressed, frustrated, feeling alone, etc. He knows everything! He experienced everything! He is the one we can turn to when times get tough and we don't feel like anyone can help us. He can. Turn to him, and see the many miracles and blessings that come from using the atonement more fully in your lives. 

I love you all, and I am so grateful to be a missionary and to be a member of the true church. I think so many times that this church has to be true, because no one would put this much effort into anything if it wasn't true. That was confirmed to me again today as we went to the temple. This gospel is true, and if we hold to the rod in these last days, and turn to Christ and Heavenly Father constantly, we will not fail. 

Keep PUSHing!

Sister Pierce

P.s. I'll send pictures next week of the temple. And of Lorraine's baptism since she's getting baptized this Saturday!! So exciting!! Have a great week!

I think I'm overloaded on sweets..and pizza...

November 2, 2015

Hello! I hope you all had a great Halloween and are enjoying the start of November! Where has this year gone?! It's crazy!

This week was possibly the most eventful week I've had on my entire mission! On Monday we had district p-day and carved pumpkins and went to Texas road house. While at Texas road house, the elders made me sit on the saddle for my birthday! Ugh...so embarrassing! But it made me feel good that they celebrated my birthday with me a little. Then on Tuesday, we did service at upReach and ended up unloading about 675 bales of hay! It was crazy, I've never seen so much hay in my life! It was loaded up in a Fritos lays 18 foot truck! Ridiculous! It was so
much fun though. I really love service, especially as a missionary! Then on Wednesday, the elders made me a birthday cake and the district all sang to me! I hate being put on the spot, but it made me feel good that I was cared enough about to have that happen unexpectedly. We also saw Lorraine on Wednesday and our investigator Jackee. Lorraine is hopefully going to be baptized next Saturday and Jackee is starting to look forward to our visits! Success!! She never really made time for us, but now she is. I think it's because she's more prepared for the gospel now and because we bring a member with us each week who she loves! Members are the best with missionary work. I have grown to really appreciate the efforts of members in missionary work. It's not the same when members are not involved. It's crazy! Members are the key to missionary work!

We also had trunk or treat this week and sister Lee and I had no idea what to be, then we decided to be New England fans. I was a Red Sox fan and sister Lee was a patriots fan. Nothing too exciting, but at least we dressed up a little! We also received a referral that evening from our investigator, Bobbi, who surprisingly showed up! It was awesome! Unfortunately it was super rainy that evening, so we just trick or treated from door to door in the church, but it was still fun to see everyone in their costumes! Then on Thursday, it was my birthday! It was weird though because it didn't feel like anything special. I guess that's what starts to happen as you get older, right?
Ha but it was pretty special backseat I got some phone calls from missionaries in our area, and we went out to lunch with sister holm and pettingill in the office. It's so fun to serve in the mission office area! We also saw our investigator, Leah. She met with missionaries in the last, so she already knows that the Book of Mormon
is true! We're still getting to know her, but I think she's going to be progressing soon! Then, that evening, we had a lesson with a LA, brother Therrien. He bought me a cake and we had a "mini birthday party"! Oh man...I had so much cake and candy this week.....It's insane.

Then on Halloween, we deep cleaned. Our apartment has so much junk in it! We spent almost all 4 hours just cleaning and organizing our study room. It's insane. We filled an entire box with just teachings of the living prophets books. Then we found a gajillion bars of soap, a pair of rollerblades, 2 bike helmets (no bikes, though), a box of hot curlers, etc.  and that was just one part of our apartment...ridiculous. Then last night we had a pizza party with our assistant ward mission leader, just for fun. He made like 12 pizzas! Crazy! They have a sign in their house that says, "pace yourself"....they obviously know how to eat a lot of pizza because we and the elders were slowing down around the 7th pizza....it was crazy! But so good!!

I am so grateful for this gospel and for how it truly brings everyone together. The gospel has blessed my life immensely and I have seen how it blesses the lives of the members in New England and the lives of those we teach. I am so grateful for the truthfulness of the gospel and for the peace and comfort it brings in trying times. I love you all and I hope you all can see the blessings of the gospel in your lives, because they're all around us!

Keep PUSHing!
Sister Pierce

Trunk or Treat 

Our Bishop is Luke skywalker....hahah so fun!

Birthday Fun (Sister Lee's mom gave me a tiara and birthday sash. I had to take a picture of it) 

Our pumpkin

Birthday party gang

Sister Butler loves Betty Boop, so this is me with Betty

Me with some New England scenery!

I'm turning into a New Englander...

October 26, 2015

Hey there everyone! Happy Halloween this weekend!! I hope you all have fun plans and have fun ideas for what you're going to be! Sister Lee and I are still trying to come up with a clever idea to dress up as. Hopefully we think of something quick! Our time is running out. We get to dress up at our ward trunk or treat on Wednesday, so that will be fun! Then on Halloween, all of the missionaries need to be in by 5pm so that we can stay safe with the crazy things that tend to occur on Halloween evening. So, we are instructed to do a "deep clean on Halloween". That should be fun! We actually will have time to organize and see what materials we have for proselyting and such. 

So, yesterday, I hit my 8 month mark. Crazy! And I think I'm starting to turn into a new Englander because this morning during comp study, I said "sister Lee, that's a really good idear." I said idear! That's what all the New Englanders say! They literally add an r to almost every word, and idea with an r is the most common. And I said it and it was natural. I barely even caught myself! Goodness gracious.  I was super upset. Haha well, I guess it's alright because I'm actually letting my mission "go through me", right? Ha

This week we had zone interviews and I got a lot of good advice from President Stoker on how to best help Sister Lee. She's doing really well, but she's been very emotional the past week or so as we do real plays during comp study. She's becoming very overwhelmed and has told me that she doesn't like people or like talking to people....that makes missionary work very hard! So, it was good to get some advice from president to know how to best help her. 

We also found a new investigator this week. She was a referral from a member. We didn't have much time to visit with her because she had other plans that day, but it's exciting that we're still finding people to teach! We also have a few other potential investigators, that just are never home, but continue to reschedule with us, so that gives me hope that they're being more than "just nice". 

Also, yesterday during gospel essentials, I tried to interpret for Claude in ASL. I know a little bit from reading a textbook he let me borrow, but I still did terrible. He was very patient with me though. I also became flustered when I had to spell out a bunch of words and I was getting confused with letters. However, he kind of expects me to interpret for him...so that's interesting. It was hard though because the lesson was on the great apostasy. Ugh...and the other member who is going to school for ASL is somewhat inactive, and she didn't even know what the apostasy was...so Sunday's are going to be interesting....But it will be a fun challenge!

That's about it over here! Except for the fact that the elders are starting to call me "grandma" because I'm so much older than all of them. On Thursday, I'm officially going to be about 3-4 years older than them...weird...

Have a great week and great Halloween!

Keep PUSHing!

Sister Pierce

Fall colors...I slightly die a little inside when I know I can't pull the car over and take pictures of all of the beautiful colors around New Hampshire. Sister Lee thinks I'm crazy! I guess that's what you get for having a "photography mind". So, here's the best I could do with pictures...these don't even do it justice. You'll just have to come back and visit with me in the fall! That's my plan! :)