5-28-13

Happy Birthday to you! And Molly also!!

Okay! So I got the school letter done, that took awhile, I know its not very good and probably has a ton of grammatical errors, but with the circumstances I find myself in, I dont have much time to write, just pday. So if its not good enough I am fine with it because I was obedient and I know God will bless me for it.

A few things I wanted to mention that we have been working on here as a companionship. We have set our own standards of excellence for our work. Every day we have a minimum of 9 lessons, and we ALWAYS find someone new to teach every day, and 50 contacts each day is our minimum. We have been getting up at 5 every morning to start our day an hour earlier and get out working at 10 in the morning after personal, companionship, and language study. So as far as our past week went, it went pretty well, we had 60 lessons, 34 new investigators, 6 attending at church, and 373 contacts. I am trying to work my last change into the ground. 

Next week we are going to do something we are calling a week of consecration, where we give even more, I think we are going to get up at 4 every day and set a few more standards of excellence. Than we will have another week waking up at 5 and we are going to do a week of Gratitude where we do something similar to the week of consecration but probably a little more work. Its my last week as a missionary so I have to make sure I work it. 

So good news! I finished the Book of Mormon! I felt so good to finish it, I honestly felt the spirit testifying of its truthfulness and this read through has been so amazing, I have had so many insights I had never seen before and I have learned a ton. Truly the Book of Mormon is a book of Scripture. I wrote my testimony of the book of Mormon in the back right after finishing it. I thought it would be something cool for my children to see someday. Read the Book of Mormon every day! its the best motivator, and converter we have!

Something interesting my companions and I do each night that I havent done before, but it has really been a huge blessing. In our planning session each night we have a small companionship inventory. Its amazing how much our trust has increased in each other through that, we honestly have a ton of unity and we always talk about the small things, that may not seem important but really are, and we have a lot of success because of that.

And the most amazing thing happened this last week. We were teaching a family that has been investigators for a long time, since before my companions were here, and we challenged them to baptism and accepted. From everything we have heard its a definite miracle that they want to get baptized, because the husband was completely against the church before, so there has been a massive change in heart. But the biggest surprise wasnt that, it was when we taught them after that the next day, the husband told me, I want you to baptize me. That was a huge shock for me because I was sure he would have wanted my companion to baptize him, because he has been working with him for a long time. Whatever the reason, it was a tender mercy for me. We are planning on having them married on the 8th of June and Baptized as well. My two year mark. That was cool because I just remember we challenged them to that date and then later I realized it was exactly that day. But In any case I am super happy, its a family of 5 and they are super amazing.

But anyways, I know my email is void of any scriptures and such, I will send them next week, I am just super rushed right now, I am super sorry about that, but I love you all and miss you, stay safe please!

Love,

Elder Pierce

Oh and please tell everyone who wrote thank you so much! Uncle Scott, Brittani, Stacy, and Papa and Grandma and Brayden, it means a ton! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Pierce

5-24-13

Dear Pierce Family,

 

We inform you that your son will return home on Thursday, June 27^th. He will be arriving in Birmingham at approximately 2:59 PM.

 

Thanks for your care,

 

Elder Robinson

Secretario Ejecutivo

Misión Guatemala Central

5-21-13

Dear Family,

 Okay, So there is alot of stuff to respond to this week, and not alot of time, but I am going to do my best. First off, Thank you so much to everyone else in the family who too the time to write me this week! Honestly, you have no idea how awesome it is to be able to come here and know I have the support of everyone, it makes a huge difference and helps me maintain my focus, so thank you so much!

Answering questions about changes, I was transferred to El Caminero in Villa Hermosa, And I am in a trio, With two other Elders, Elder Al___, and Elder Ar___. So its been a pretty big change, working in a trio is extremely different, but a huge blessing in some ways. Oh! and I was also released from being District Leader and retention secretary! I was so excited for that, dont get me wrong, working as a leader is a great opportunity and experience, but there was so much pressure, I literally feel like a semi truck has been lifted off of my back and I can just focus strictly on my area, and companionship. Its very relieving. As far as my companions, I will write more about them next week, but they are both from guatemala, and we get along pretty well. Elder Ar___ is like my twin, we have everything in common and laugh alot, Elder Al___ is great too, he has a super happy attitude that you cant get down, something I admire about him, he always has a smile and is showing care for the investigators. Pretty powerful character trait.

Okay, so an experience this week from my studies, I was reading in Helaman, in chapter 13, and verses 2 to 4 caught my attention this time. Samuel was called to preach to the Nephites and they rejected him so he left, but the Lord told him to go back and preach again, but what caught my attention was this, when he went back, he knew they wouldnt listen to him if he did the same thing he did last time, so he did something different and got up on the wall. I thought about it as a missionary application, sometimes we are rejected by a person and when we talk to them again we just try the same thing, but we have to try new things if we want to get a different result. Something president Brough taught us once was that, if we always do the same thing, we will only achieve the same thing, if we want a different result we have to try something different as well. So that was a pretty nice insight I had  there in my study this week. I love the Book of Mormon, reading it these past 2 months has been amazing, I know I am flying through it, and I might be missing stuff, but my goal was to have it finished again within May, I am starting ether right now and am planning to finish it this week and then start a new study.

I think I got everything, sorry that this is such a short email. and kind of weak as well, but I love you all and miss you a ton, if I missed something please let me know.

Love,

Elder Pierce

5-14-13

Dear Mom,

 It was great having the chance to talk to you all as well, its great hearing that everyone is doing alright. So real quick thank you so much to Papa, Scott, Grandma Linda, Brayden, Wendi, and Brittani for sending me an email this week! It means a ton to be able to come and have an email from all the members of the family each week.

Well, I am sure everyone is wondering what is going to happen as far as changes, I am leaving my area, so I have no idea where I am going yet, just that I am leaving, I am sad to leave and go to a new place for my last change, but at the same time I am excited to have the chance to know and meet new people and help them. I have had a ton of changes throughout the mission, with this next one I will have had 9 areas and 17 companions. Haha, a little different from the typical mission but its okay. So I will be sure to tell you next week who my companion is and where I am at, we will find out tomorrow in change meeting.

Anyways,  Sunday night we talked alot about my area and what is going on here, so there isnt very much new stuff. But This week I did find another scripture  I really liked. Its in Helaman 4 verse 15, its pretty short and simple but I like it. Repentance is the key to progress. When we repent we invite change, and so the biggest thing I have tried to focus on right now is to be constantly repenting, I think thats one of the hardest things for us to do, because we very often get into a routine which we feel comfortable in, and we dont feel any huge reason to change, when we need to. And sometimes its not even that we are truly doing something very bad, its just there is something better we can be doing. For instance here in the mission there are so many things we can repent of, that dont have to do with breaking the rules, it can be something as simple as changing the way we are planning, to become more effective. Everyone thinks of repentance being a change from something bad to good, and then forget the change from good to better. I am pretty sure there was a talk in General conference a few years ago about this, by Dallin H. Oaks if I remember right. But the point is, that we have to constantly be looking for ways to improve, and if we do that, we can constantly maintain humility, and recieve blessings. 

This week we had P day as a district to finish out the change, we had a pancake breakfast and then went out to the beach to play soccer together, this district is a pretty amazing one. We just click very well, I am pretty sad we wont be together anymore. But I am sure we are needed in different places. Before we did the breakfast we had our studies and we did a district study instead of Companionship study, the majority of what we talked about was the Book of Mormon, which honestly is the best tool we have when it is combined with the spirit. It was a good study. . 

I am a little low on money right now though, I bought a backpack with the money I had from home because my last one finally died. and this time I didnt want to get another sort of alright back pack, so I got a pretty good one that I will be using after the mission as well. Anyways, for that reason I am a little low on money, I dont know if there is any way you could send me some? it would be a big help.

I love you all and miss you, thank you so much for all of your support, I hope you are all doing well over there!

Love,

Elder Pierce

5-7-13

Dear Family,

Well, Its been a pretty nice week here, The heat is always around but I will be honest, I have gotten pretty used to it. Every so often I meet a guatemalan who has been to alabama and they always say its hotter there. So I dont know! I never really noticed it, but maybe living with air conditioning all the time back home makes a pretty big difference in how the heat feels. Here you have a pretty good deal of money if you have air conditioning. So pretty much everyone lives without it. Alot of people live in metal houses. I cant even imagine how hot it gets in there during the middle of the day. 

But anyways, Yesterday, we went to Antigua again as a zone, Antigua is pretty cool but I have been there way too many times, But this time we got in a carriage and had a horse pull us around, I hadnt ever done that before so that was pretty cool, but mainly we went around as a district, and showed an elder who hasnt ever been all of the ruins and other things like that, it was relaxing, but everytime I go I always feel kind of strange, because it was my district and so it kind of feels like a step into the past. I saw some members I knew, I found out that one of the men I interviewed to be baptized died last friday, That was a sad piece of news. But the Saturday before he was able to go to the temple for his first time and participate in Baptisms, So even though its sad, I am really glad that he had the chance to go to the temple before passing.

In other news, There is in fact, going to be a new zone in our mission. last saturday they split the Stake of Chimaltenango, and now they have The Antigua Stake and the Chimaltenango stake, so there will be alot of changes in those areas very soon. Apparently The Antigua Zone is going to be almost purely Sister Missionaries, Just the Zone leaders, the district leader, and another pair of elders and then around 7 companionships of sisters. So that will be a very different thing for the mission.

But anyways, the week has passed by well, we are teaching a man named Luis, and he is super prepared for this message. No joke, we taught him about the restoration in the first visit, then gave him a book of mormon in the second, and when we passed by the third time, he told us that he had read and he felt good inside, and just knew the book was true. He came to church on sunday with his two children, he also has a wife, but she works on Sundays, thats a problem we are going to have to work with. That and we need to know if they are married also. Without kidding, here in The coast it is absolutely insane how many people live together without being married, I thought it was alot in the States, but here out of about 20 couples you will be lucky if you find one who is married. They just dont do it here. Its like a hassle to them. 

Well, something cool I learned in my study this week. So In Alma chapter 27, All of Ammon's converts are being attacked and killed by the Lamanites. Ammon tells them that they should go and live with the nephites, The king says that if God says they should do it they will, but if he doesnt they will stay. And it talks about the fear The Anti nephi lehies have of going to live with the nephites after having caused them so much harm. They are worried they wont accept them. Anyways, When they get to the Nephites They say that it is alright for the Anti Nephi lehies to live with them. But verse 25 is what really struck me this time as I was reading. to me it seems like the anti nephi lehies felt so much guilt for what they had done to the nephites that they felt unsure and worried to go live with them, feeling unworthy, but in verse 25 It says that Alma, Ammon, and Aaron Tell them the story of their conversion. Why? to comfort them! I just thought that it was something cool that I had never seen before in the Book of Mormon, that Alma and the sons of Mosiah told their conversion story to comfort the new converts, and help them see that they too, just as Alma and Ammon and Aaron had recieved forgiveness, could recieve it as well. I havent really explained it very well, But to me it was just a great example of how important our own experiences are, and how sharing them with others can help others to feel the spirit. Especially our investigators. 

But anyways, The call on Mothers Day, I was thinking we could do it on Sunday around 8 or 830 at night? My number is -----, But I would give you all a call to let you know I am ready, does that sound alright? We only have 40 minutes to call this time.

Well, thats about all, I hope I got all of your questions, love you all and miss you!

Love,

Christopher