Hola hola hola

My happiness on a scale of 1 to 10 is probably around a... 15. This week was fantastic :) So to start off the Christmas festivities were fantastic. We got invited over to some less actives, the Giles, for Christmas Eve dinner and it was just a riot. I love being around big crazy families cause it makes me feel like I'm at home. The Giles family is the greatest, we've been working with them for a long time now and they are starting to read scriptures and pray as a family again.

On Christmas day we woke up and got to open our Christmas packages (Thanks families, everything is so so great) and then we went to our branch presidents house for a brunch and to Skype our families :) First off families, Y'all are amazing and slightly crazy, but mostly amazing. Haha Hermana Larson kept trying to reassure me that her family was crazy too so it's okay that they we're all flexing their muscles and making crazy faces. And then they started Skyping and I realized her family really is normal and she just said it to be nice. Hahahah I love you all so much! And then Christmas night we went to Hermano Chavez's house (a member) and ate tacos. Different than most Christmas meals but it was the best.

During the Christmas season the work was really slow. Between all the meetings and people being really busy, we weren't having a lot of success. BUT after Christmas everything just took off. We got a ton of referrals, lessons, and 11 new investigators. We had one person who we had a lesson with and they said that had lived there for years and had tons of missionaries from different churchs come knocking and avoided them all but for some reason that day they decided to open up and they want to know more about what we believe.

As for my personal favorite part of this week, it would have to be church this Sunday :) We had one investigator at church which was great, but the best thing was that 5 less active families that we've been working with all came. I was going to write more about how amazing it was but I officially have 1 minute left on the computer before it kicks me off.

LES QUIERO!!!

Con Amor,

Hermana Pier

FELIZE NAVIDAD

First of all can I just say that I LOVE Christmas time. It's the greatest

time of year and the greatest time to share the gospel with others. We have
been singing Christmas songs to everyone and been offering a lot of service
to people. It's been the best. And this next week will just continue to be
super exciting. This week I will officially have been on my mission for 6
months (WEIRD!), we have a giant Branch Christmas party, I'm giving my
first talk in sacrament meeting in Spanish (I'm just a little bit scared...
okay a lot!), AND it's CHRISTMAS! Which means that I get to talk to my
family! Yay!!!!!

This past week we had our mission Christmas activity and it was a great
time. We did a nativity and had a bunch of special musical numbers. We
talked a lot about the reason for the season. I'm so grateful for my Savior
and his life and sacrifice for every single one of us. President Choi said
that it's time for us to "change and prepare to give Him EVERYTHING." And I
really started thinking about it because He did so much for us and there is
no way we can ever repay Him for it, but we need to work with all our
hearts, mights, minds and strength to do all that we can to help others
know of his love for them.

Sorry I'm all out of time but I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas
and I will talk to you all in a few weeks. 

Les Quiero!!!! 

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!

Con Amor,

Hermana Pier

Hermana Larson and me with our Christmas tree.

Our tree

All the Hermanas in our mission.

Another transfer in the Seahurst Branch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week was FANTASTIC! We got transfer calls last night and..... Hermana
Larson and I will both being staying here for another transfer! YAY! We
were just a little, super duper excited when we found out. We're ready to
go out and work even harder this transfer and to learn and grow so much.
The night before transfers we do this fun thing where we take out our Book
of Mormon and then we just flip it open to a random page and point to a
random verse and try to "interpret" the scripture to see if we are going to
being leaving or staying. Mine talked a lot about "mighty changes" so I was
a little nervous after reading it, but luckily our crazy antics don't
actually effect if we stay or if we go. What a relief!

This week we had exchanges and I spent a day serving in North Bend again.
It was weird to go back and see the people there again and to get to serve
with Hermana Phillips. I loved that I was able to see so many ways that the
area has progressed this transfer and how certain people are now
progressing. I got to talk to Marco for a bit and he was so excited to tell
me that this Sunday he was going to be blessing the Sacrament and also
going to share his testimony during testimony meeting.

Thanksgiving was such a fun day to be a missionary! We ate dinner with our
Branch President and his family and it was great and we also had a big
activity as missionaries! We played volleyball, basketball, and foot
volleyball and it was a blast. President Choi was showing everyone up at
the sports and I'm convinced that he is basically professional at
EVERYTHING he does.

This Sunday we had 5 people who were committed to coming to church. We
thought that without a doubt they would all be there because they had rides
with members or were following us there, and we were so excited. And then,
one by one Sunday morning, we received calls from each telling us different
reasons why they couldn't come. At first I got a little down and was trying
to figure out what we needed to do differently. Then, Hermana Larson and I
started talking about how it was fine. We just had to keep working and
thanking heavenly father for all the blessings and miracles we are seeing.
About 10 seconds later we got a call from a less active whose family we
have been visiting with weekly. He called and needed help finding the
church! He came to church this Sunday for the first time in 15 years. And
then 10 minutes into Sacrament meeting 4 of our investigators, who we
hadn't thought were going to be able to come this week, all walked in. I
was so so grateful that although sometimes God's ways and timing are
different than what we expect, He is always blessing us and we just need to
be patient.

Other than that we just taught lots and enjoyed our time. We were able to
have members come to a lot of lessons with us and meet a lot of interesting
people. Also, it snowed for about 5 minutes yesterday. It was pretty
exciting! Hermana Larson is from Arizona so she was just a little bit
excited. Well, I love you all so much!!!!

Con Amor,
Hermana Pier

Our District this transfer

My Planners

Aurora - My Bow Twin

Seahurst Week #5

This week we wanted to focus on finding a lot of new investigators so we decided to make this our "Tocar Week". Or in other works "Knocking Week". When we are planning for every day we always put backups in case our appointments fall through or we have extra time; so, this week we decided to put knocking as ALL the back ups, unless we really felt like there was someone we needed to go see. We found about the same amount of new investigators as usual, but it was a good thing because pretty much all of our set lessons this week went though and we have some amazing, very spiritual lessons! 

We had a Branch Thanksgiving Feast this week and it was amazing!!! Around 1/3rd of the people who came we're members of the church and it was a really great chance for people to get to know each other. The youth put on a cute little play about the Pilgrims and the Indians and it was adorable.

 The Branch here is really united and they really are an amazing to me of how a Ward or Branch should work. They always work together and are always there to support each other and help each other grow in their testimonies.

We had one investigator come to church this week. We ran into him one night this week when we were leaving from an appointment and started talking to him. We set up a time to come teach him on Sunday morning. We went to the appointment yesterday and taught him about the restoration and he seemed really interested. We invited him to come to church with us and he told us that he didn't know if he should. He'd never been to any kind of church ever in his like and he was scared. So after we assured him that church isn't a scary place and that it's a place where the spirit is really strong, he agreed to come! When we got to the church he was sitting in the chapel with us and he turns and says, "Wow it feels really difference here. I hope this is what I've been looking for." The whole Branch really welcomed him and we're hoping he'll choose to continue to come to church!

One of our amazing investigators ended up moving this week and that was really sad. She was really starting to progress and read the scriptures and pray. She didn't realize that we wouldn't be able to come down and teach her in their new apartment in Federal Way, and was so sad when we told her. She kept telling us to get special permission to come teach her. But even though it can't be us, she's still really wanting the missionaries there to come and see her. It's crazy how much I absolutely love these people and I'm so glad she is still wanted to learn because the gospel will bless her life so so much!

I hope that you all have an amazing Thanksgiving!! We get to have a little get together as a mission and have thanksgiving dinners with members so it should be a great time out here. Transfers are also next week, so we'll see what happens! I'm hope that I have the chance to continue to serve her in the Seahurst Branch, but if not, I'll go where the Lord calls me. 

Con Amor,

Hermana Pier

Week 4 In Seattle!!

Let's start out with my 3 favorite things about my mission:
 

1. Feeling the spirit all the time

2. Teaching people in the best language ever (Spanish of course)

3. Seeing peoples attitudes change completely as they feel the spirit
 

Okay, those may not be my favorite three things but there's too many amazing things to actually decide.
 

This week was a good week. We were able to meet a lot of people and teach a lot of lessons. We also got to give a church tour. Can I just, I love church tours! It gives us an opportunity to show our investigators the church so they can understand a little about what church will be like when they come on Sunday and the spirit is always VERY strong in the church.
 

Other than that it was a pretty normal week. We have a lot of investigators that we meet with regularly and that are amazing, now we just need to help them to progress and keep commitments. We have seen a lot of hearts being softened and know that we're going to continue to see miracles.

This week during my studies I was reading a talk about becoming the "4th missionary". Basically, what being this 4th missionary entails is being changed be your mission, giving up your will for the Lords and working with all diligence, out of love. Not for numbers or to impress leaders, but truly because you love the people and want them to feel the incomprehensible love that their Heavenly Father has for them. It really made me think about what should be the motivating force for what we do, not just in missionary work but in every day life. In the talk it asks the question, "Who are you? And who are you becoming?" I've been trying to ask myself that every day now. Am I becoming better every day? Am I developing more of the attributes of Christ? So, this is what I challenge you all to do! We're so so lucky that we have the opportunity to become better, but a lot of the time it's so much easier to stay dormant. So, this week ask yourself everyday, "Who am I? And who am I becoming?" I've been amazed to see that as I have done this, I can see both my strengths and weakness and use then to become better. And  I know we can go to our Heavenly Father, receive his guidance, and then ACT!
 

Les quiero!!!!! Gracias por su apoyo y amor!!!
 

Con Amor,
 

Hermana Pier

Our Apartment

Me and Sister Larson

Scripture cases a member gave me.

I'm glad they called me on a mission, now that I have grown a foot or two!

It's been another fabulous week in the Washington Seattle Mission!
 

Something that we have been talking about as a zone this week is inspired paths. We're trying to really be in the places that the Lord needs us, when the Lord needs us. The first cool experience that happened because of this was a couple days ago when there was a huge wind storm! We were trying to contact the people who were in our plans for the day and when those fell through we started knocking some doors. But we both started feeling like that wasn't where we were supposed to be, so we decided to reconsider. Then, Hermana Larson says, "I think we should go visit the Giles family." (They're an inactive family in our branch). So we head to their apartment complex and as we get there we see that in the middle of their parking lot, a GIANT tree has fallen over in the storm. There were people with chain saws cutting it up and then we saw our zone leaders helping them out with moving all limbs and what not. So, we got to help join in with the work. It was pretty cool to see that both sets of us missionaries felt the need to go to that specific area and because of it we were able to help serve someone.

We also learned a lot about listening closely to the spirit and following it's guidance this week. We had a set appointment with a family and we went to the appointment to find that they weren't home. But their son said they should be home in 15 minutes so we went to visit a potential investigator who lives nearby we went to her house and she wasn't home. We decided to start heading back because it's not the safest to knock random doors at night, but as we were walking, this one apartment just stood out to me and I guess I was just staring at it because Hermana Larson said, "Do you want to knock that door? If you feel like we should, let's do it." So we knocked it. And instead of the typical, "Sorry, I'm Catholic" answer that we usually get, we got a warm greeting and invited in right away and met a family who is really interested in learning more and was so willing to listen to our message. It would have been really easy
 

Also, we had our branch Halloween Party!!! Our investigator, Marlene, came with her 3 kids and it was a great time. They had a giant dinner and then trunk or treating. It's great to get people to know the members of the branch and for them to feel welcome and like they are a part of the branch family. It was so cute to see all the kids dressed up and having the best time together. It'll attach a picture of the cutest little boy in the branch, Diego, in his Indian outfit. His has the cutest long hair and makes the PERFECT Indian.
 

Also, one of the members of the Branch, Yared, came out with us one day this week and went to all of our lessons with us and it was amazing. Her and her family were baptized a little over a year ago and she it wanting to serve a mission when she turns 19 in May. It's really powerful for me to see how strong her testimony is and how much it helped strengthen our investigators. It was amazing to see how much the gospel has blessed her and her families lives, but also it was amazing how much they bring to the branch and how vital each member is and how much they help strengthen one another.   

I just love this area so much. I am learning so much and growing so much everyday. I know that the Lord is directing us in every step. And I know that he is there for you all as well. Something that I've learned a lot lately is the power of prayer. Heavenly Father is ALWAYS listening to us. Prayer is a lot like a phone call, I can call someone and tell them the things I am thankful for and the things I need help with and say anything, but if I don't wait for them to answer me, that phone call won't help me at all. So, something I've been working on a lot is listening and waiting to receive those answers after I pray. The answers aren't always instantaneous, but as I've been trying to listen, I KNOW that they always come.

  

Les quiero!!!!!!

Con Amor,

Hermana Pier

 

Cutest little boy in branch, Diego, in his Halloween costume.

Mt. Rainier

Seattle Zone Flag
 

 

Week 13!

I'm definitely not in North Bend anymore, it's so different here! I was so sad to leave all those people that I love so much, but I definitely am supposed to be in this area and I'm so excited to see how things go this transfer. The area here is different because there is Hispanics EVERYWHERE! In North Bend, the missionary work was a lot of helping the few people there that speak Spanish to start to become prepared. Here, we just search for the prepared; we talk with everyone we see and just try to love the people. My wonderful companion, Hermana Larson, is an amazing missionary. She is from Gilbert, Arizona and has been out almost 9 months. She is a very hardworking missionary and is one of the best I've ever seen.
 

The Branch that I'm serving in is wonderful.  The members are so so nice and I feel so welcome and can't wait to get to know them all better. Our Branch has 150 members, but about 75 of them are coming to church. So we get to work a lot with the less active members and they to help them to get back to church. This is probably one of the things I'm most excited for in this area. They know the joy and hope that comes from the Gospel, but for one reason or another, they've chosen not to come to church and do they things they know. I'm so excited to try and help them to remember and rekindle their testimonies and help them so return to church.
 

My first night here on Tuesday we were going to some set appointments but none of them were there so we decided to go visit a referral that they had tried to contact a few times. We went over to see Olga and she let us right in. She is the sweetest lady from Guatemala. She has had some hard times in her life but she is so strong. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and how is could help her and then we invited her to church. She came to church and the Branch just loved her and made her feel so welcome. She said how she loved it so much there and she wants to learn more. We're going to continue going back and I just feel like Heavenly Father knows not only how much this Gospel can help her life, but also how great of member she will be and how much she can help our Branch.

Hermana Larson and I both know that God has great expectations for this Branch. We are working so hard and trying to listen to Spirit. We were blessed to be able to teach so many people this week and we are going to just try to become better every week. Our Branch Mission Leader, Hermano Medrano, is great and so involved in the work. He has been a member for around 2 years and I know that as we use him and other members of the Branch, miracles are going to happen.

Some of the best news that I got this week is that Marco received the Priesthood yesterday. He's been going to lessons with the missionaries and has a calling. It made me so happy to know that things are going great for him and I know he's going to be such a strong member and is going to help so many people grow closer to their Heavenly Father.
 

I know I say this all the time but being a missionary is the best blessing ever. I have seen myself being strengthened in my testimony and seen so many others doing the same. There's no other experience in my life that has helped me the way that my mission has so far. My gratitude grows daily for the things that my Savior, Jesus Christ, has done for us. The chance that we have to change our lives everyday is the most amazing gift.

Les Quiero!
 

Con Amor,
 

Hermana Pier

Goodbye North Bend, Hello.....

So, the big day of Marco's baptism was this week! Yay! Well, a few days before his baptism he started getting really worried. Satan was working really hard on him and he started getting scared and nervous. We talked to him and told him to read his scriptures and pray and that he would know what to do. He did just that and the next morning he told us that he has never been more sure and was so ready to get baptized. It's amazing the power that we have in prayers and the scriptures. His baptism was amazing and the spirit was so strong. President and Sister Choi were able to make it to the baptism, as well as the Stake President and some other investigators. As for Marco, I have no doubt that he is going to be such a strong member of the church and such an example for the people in that area.
 

And yes I say "that area" and not "this area" because I've been transferred to another area. It's a little bittersweet. I love the people in the Mt. Si area so much! I love the members, the leaders, the investigators, all of them and have learned so much while serving there. Pero, I'm very excited to be serving in the Seahurst Spanish area now! We cover the whole area around and in Seattle and have a branch. The missionary work is doing great here and I can't wait to be a part of it. I am companions with Hermana Larsen and she's just the cutest, sweetest missionary. I can't wait to see what miracles lay in store for us this transfer.
 

Les Quiero!
 

Con Amor,
 

Hermana Pier

 

Us with Marco at his baptism.

 

 

Us at the Falls my last Pday in North Bend.

Week 11!

This week was just fantastic!!!!!!!!! To start off let's talk about Marco! His baptism is this Saturday and he so so excited. He has invited his friends and family and it's going to be a really amazing experience. Also, HE FINISHED THE BOOK OF MORMON! Yay! He has started reading it again and has a very strong testimony of it. He also brought his daughter to a lesson with him and we got to give her a tour of the church and talk to her a little about her dad's choice to be baptized.
 

One of the most amazing miracles happened this week! We were having a lesson with one of our investigators Tina and she was telling us how she feels good at church and when we're over but when she says her personal prayers she doesn't feel anything. She was stressed because her son hadn't talked to them or came home in a month and she didn't know what to do. It was cool because in our zone meeting this week we had focused all on prayer and how to help investigators say prayers and receive answers so we were able to use some of the things we'd learned. But the amazing thing was we all got down to say a kneeling prayer and she was nervous so we decided to each say one and she could go last. Hermana Phillips and I went second and we both prayed for her, that she could learn to recognize the spirit, that her family could grow closer and that things would work out with them, and things like that. Well, literally the second I said "Amen" The front door opened up and in walked her son! He walked back to his room and she just started bawling. It's amazing to see that God remembers all of his children and truly does answer prayers.
 

One scary moment this week was that Hermana Phillips had to go to Leadership Training this week and so another missionary came to our area to go out with me. The thing was, she speaks English and Russian!!! Sooo... I was so scared about not being able to communicate perfectly with the people by myself in Spanish. Luckily, through LOTS and LOTS of praying, I was able to communicate and teach all of our lessons by myself. Sometimes it's scary trying to speak another language but I've seen the miracles as I've been learning Spanish and am growing everyday!
 

Now for the moment this week that I hope won't happen EVER again!!!
 

As you may have realized, I have this problem called "I fall down a lot". Last night we were walking out of our last appointment for the night and it was pitch black. We got a text from a member, and I was about to answer when I thought to myself, "It's really dark I should really wait and answer when we get to the car." Probably 5 steps later I ran into the sidewalk and went flying forward yelling and face planted it. Well, my hands caught me and got a wee bit torn up and bloody but all is well. I also may have broken my toe seeing as it's all swollen and bruised, who knows? But I learned my lesson and will be putting a flashlight in my bag pronto!
 

Also we lost an investigator this week because in his words I "robbed all of him when he saw me." He texts us all the time and says how much he loves me. Yikes. I maybe said 4 words to him total. Ay Ay Ay muchachos these days!!!! Hahaha
 

This is a quote from General Conference that I thought was really beautiful and something that really stuck out to me!- "We are simply asking all members to pray, knowing that if every member, young and old, will reach out to just “one” between now and Christmas, millions will feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful gift to the Savior." So I want to challenge all of you to take Elder Ballard's advice and pray and seek for an opportunity to help someone around you feel the love of Christ.
 

Les Quiero!
 

Con Amor,
 

Hermana Pier

 I got my great halloween package from my Mommy! We loved the vampire teeth!

 

Caution: Porch is Slippery When Wet‏

HOLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

The week was a great week of teaching and getting to talk to a lot of the people in the area. We had a lot of really great lessons and were able to meet with a few people we've been trying to for a really long time so that was very promising. Of course though, the best thing about this week was good old General Conference. It was amazing! We got to watch all 4 sessions at the church and all three sets of missionaries in our district had investigators come so that was a blessing! Marco came to a few of the sessions when he didn't have work and also went to the priesthood session with some of the people in our ward. And after, do you want to know what he did?! He went to a restaurant with some of his friends and they started talking about religion and he gave them a Book of Mormon. WOOOO! We have ourselves a little missionary and he's not even baptized yet. Also, for more happy news, he had his baptismal interview and he passed. So in less than two weeks he will be a member of the church! He's so excited and we are as well!

Not much more happened this week, but as for my embarrassing moment (One of many)- We went to visit a potential investigator the other day and it was raining like crazy. She wasn't home to I turned around to go down the steps and slipped. At this point, I literally went flailing down the stairs. My arms were going crazy, my skirt flew up, and I got mud all over. Rough life. Hahaha thankfully, other than a few little bruises, all is well. Moral of the story: rain makes things slippery and I need to be more careful. Who would have thought?!
 

Recuerden siempre, somos hijos de dios y el nos ama! Les quiero!
 

Con Amor,

Hermana Pier

 

The 4 of us Spanish Hermanas serving in the Bellevue South Zone! I love them all!

 

 

And Hermana Phillips and I just a little bit excited that we were about to get to watch conference

"They are not muchachas! They are Hermanas!"

This week was fantastic of course!!!!
 

The first thing that made this week fantastic is our ward. They're amazing. This week we had a meeting and each different group leader was coming up with different ways to further the missionary work in the ward and how they each specifically would apply this in their lives. And then yesterday at church Marco's baptism was announced in sacrament meeting and he was just beaming! So many ward members were congratulation him and he is excite to officially be a part of this ward.  And he got 3 dinner invites for this week from different families! Say what?! Our ward is so amazing and wanting to help other feel like a part of our ward family.
 

As for Marco is doing great! He is having his baptismal interview this week and can't wait for October 19th. He is already to Alma 36 in the Book of Mormon. He said he just stays up until 2 or 3 every night reading. It's really amazing to see someone gain their own testimony of these things and really change their life.
 

Chera, our amazing investigator, is doing amazing and continuing to come to church and really wants to be baptized. She is working on quitting smoking. She leaves for Spokane this week for work training and it could be for a few weeks or even a few months! We're really praying for her and hoping that she can continue on this path!

We are teaching this cute family (I sent a picture home with their little girl Aurora a few weeks ago) and they are so great and really perceptive to the things we are teaching. Her work schedule just got changed so she doesn't have to work on Sundays anymore so she can start coming to church! We are really excited and hope that they can continue to desire to learn more. They told us the funniest story the other day when we were over there. So, the mother, Maria, is related to the 65 year old drunk that proposed to me and to the people that he lives with. So her and Aurora went to visit them and they started talking about us. And one of the men called us "Las muchachas bonitas" or in other words the beautiful girls. I guess Aurora, the cute little three year old, turns to him and says "They are not muchachas! They are Hermanas and they can't date!!!!!" Hahaha she told him.
 

We also got to go watch the General Relief Society Broadcast. It was AMAZING! Any of you who didn't get the chance to watch it, go on lds.org and get on that, it was great. Oh how could I have forgot to mention that General Conference is this weekend!!!! I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you all get the chance to watch it and enjoy the words of the prophet and the apostles!

Other than that, things here are just rainy and great. The other day we were driving down the road and I was joking and said, "The wind is blowing so hard! One of those trees is going to snap in half." I spoke to soon. Not even two minutes later Hermana Phillips yelled because a tree by us had a entire branch just torn off by the wind. I didn't see it because I was distracted by the tree in front of us that was snapping in half! So long story short, we almost got hit by probably 3 or 4 trees. Scariest 30 seconds of my life.
 

Anyyyyyways, the church is true and I love it here. God is truly working miracles. Here's a cute little quote from Richard G. Scott to get y'all thinking. I know it definitely made me thing about what I am trying to become while I'm here.
 

"We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day."
 

Hasta la proxima semana! Siempre recuerden que Dios nos ama!
 

Les quiero!!!!
 

Con Amor,
 

Hermana Pier

This first picture is us in our rain gear. WE LOVE THE RAIN! I think a lot of the members were not happy to hear that we pray for the rain to come more often. Whoops.

This picture just describes the struggle of my life. All I wanted was a cute little picture with Sophie so you all could see how cute our dog is, and she moved last second. So here she is all demon looking and what not.

One day it rains, the next it pours, but it doesn't matter because my life's the Lords.

HELLLLLLLLOOOOOO Family and Friends!
 

This week I went on exchanges to Seattle on Thursday! I was excited to work in another area with Hermana Fowlks. Well, she has been super sick since she got here from the Mexico MTC about 5 weeks ago and can only go out some days and this happened to be a bad day :( So I got in a day of studying and working on Spanish lots. On Friday night I got back to my area and Hermana Phillips and I went to go to an appointment. They ended up not being home and as we were walking away.. she threw up in their bushes. Turns out she got the stomach flu. So, we spend the rest of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in the house. Entonces, not much happened this week.
 

But of course I had to have the best story for last....
 

So we were with Marco on Tuesday night and guess what?!?!?!?!
 

He has decided to move up his baptism date! He is getting baptized on October 19th, the last weekend before the end of this transfer. Hermana Phillips and I are both so excited that we get to be here to see his baptism. On the down side, he's asked us to sing at his baptism. Yeah.. I'm not much of a singing a duet in front of a bunch of people kinda person. This should be interesting.
 

Les quiero, pero mas importantamente, Dios les ama!!!!!!
 

Con Amor,
 

Hermana Pier

We're the Sister Missionaries here in Mt. Si, teaching all the kids it ain't cool to get high!!

Hola!!!!!

 

It's been another BEAUTIFUL week here in the Valley and I'm loving my time here!

Firstly is the weekly update on Marco!!!! Haha He's so great! We had a few lessons this week and I'm pretty sure that he should be the one teaching us. Not even joking! we had a lesson about the Book of Mormon and we were just talking about how we can apply scriptures in our own lives. So we choose a few of the stories that he's already gotten to in his reading in the Book of Mormon and talked about them. We got there and he knew so much. He could basically tell us all the details about every story and how he'd tried to apply it in his life. He is a scripture reading pro. He's loving getting to know the members in the ward and loves his calling to set the translation equipment up every week. We're so happy that he is so diligent and has so much faith!
 

One miracle that has happened recently is one of the people who used to attend church and ever had a baptismal date has began coming back to church! Yay! Chera is amazing and such a strong woman but was going through some really hard times and instead of going to the Lord to get help she became kind of bitter against God. We would still go visit her every now and then but she wasn't really interested in what we had to say anymore. A few weeks ago she decided to come to church and is now coming to church every week and is attending the Relief Society activities. She is working on giving up smoking and we are just trying to be super supportive and help her with the difficult change.

 

Last night I experienced one of those times that you know you're lead to visit certain people. First off, If you've ever had to go knocking door to door in the Seattle area on the night of a Seahawks game before, you also probably didn't have a ton of people wanting to open their doors and talk to you. This was exactly our dilemma yesterday. To add to the fun it also finally decided to rain. And when I say rain I'm not saying a Seattle mist. More like raining cats and dogs, thunder, lightning, the whole deal. We tried to visit lots of people with no luck and then Hermana Phillips felt like we should go visit Veronica. So, we decided to go visit Veronica and see if we could teach her. Luckily, she was home and let us right in and we started to read some in the scriptures with her but we soon found out she has a HUGE fear of lightning, she was more scared than her two kids were. So we said a prayer with her and decided to play a game of "Don't Eat Pete" to distract her. She loved it and was so grateful for us and that she was able to be distracted from the storm. And even though it wasn't a big thing I'm really glad we were there to help her a little.

 

I just want you all to know that I know with all my heart that our Heavenly Father knows each of us personally. And he knows exactly what we all need and how to help us though ANYTHING. It's been amazing seeing this not only in my life but in the life of the people in this area, in my companion, and in my family back home. I'm so grateful that every time I need someone who can understand what I'm going though, Christ knows. Always. What a blessing we have to know this and to be able to pray to him how love and support.

 

Les quiero!
 

Con Amor,
 

Hermana Pier

Week 6 for realz

Transfers have came and gone and I...... Am staying in the Mt Si Spanish Area!!!! WOOT! So Hermana Phillips and I will be here and she will finish my training. And Hermana Enos got her visa and is off to Argentina as of yesterday! I'm sure going to miss her but we're also excited that see is getting to head off to her mission.

For the exciting news of this week... Marco has decided that he wants to be baptized on November 2nd! It's a really special day for him because it's his dads birthday and his dad has passed away. But in our last lesson he said that he had been praying about it a lot and he feels like he needs to be baptized that date, if not sooner. He says the most sincere prayers ever and is an amazing example to me.

This week we've just been teaching lots and loving life. Funny moment this week:

I prayed for our ward mission leaders house to be blessed with love, safety, and fish. Some spanish words are a little too similar for my liking. Also, I was joking around with Hermana Enos but instead of telling her I was going to fight her, I told her I was going to shower her. Haha Spanish can be a struggle sometimes.

Well not much more has happened this week, but I'll be writing y'all about that plethora of miracles we have this next week. But before signing off I'd like to send a good old Happy Birthday wish to my daddy tomorrow! 

LOVE YOU! 

                       This picture is us with Aurora. Funniest, crazy little girl ever.

Semana numero.. seis?

This week was another AMAZING week! (Of course!) How can it not be when I'm in the best place ever and I'm a missionary? It's amazing, we see miracles every day and just continue to grow so much!

One exciting thing that happened this week was teaching for a day in my area with out my trainers. SCARY! So, my companion, Hermana Phillips, is the Spanish Sister Training Leader. So every week she goes on companionship exchanges with different Spanish speaking sisters. Well she was going to be going to another area and another Hermana was going to be coming the spend a day in our area with Hermana Enos and I. Well, another Hermana has been super sick. President Choi called and asked for one of us to go spend a day with her so her companions could go out. Long story short, Hermana Pingree (an Hermana who has only been out 6 weeks longer than I) and I were all alone in my area for a day. We were terrified! What if someone said something in Spanish that we didn't understand? Or if we taught something wrong? Of course everything was fine. It was really fun getting to do missionary work with someone new and see new ways of doing things. We had a blast!!!

On Friday night there was a baptism in our zone and Marco attended it with us. It was great and the spirit was so strong and then after we got to go walk around the temple grounds with him and it was a fantastic experience! The next night a family in the ward invited him and us over to watch the Joseph Smith movie and it was a great time. Marco is such an awesome person! Seriously he is the cream of the crop. He's been to church 5 times, loves reading the Book of Mormon and is so sincere in his desires to know more. 

At church this week we finally got the translating equipment so that our investigators can wear headphones and listen in Spanish! What a blessing! We had three investigators at church and they loved it and thought it was so amazing. We're hoping this will help ever more investigators come to church because it was kind of hard getting people to come when they couldn't understand anything. It was so cool to see how excited the ward got and how great of member missionaries they all are.

And the most exciting part of the week... We joined the Mission Choir! Haha so our mission president has had this dream since he got here to start a mission choir. So we had our first practice yesterday on P-day and it was the best. It's amazing how singing can bring the spirit. Well remember how I told you about my "Knock, knock, knock" song. They brought it up in front of the whole choir and made me stand up and teach everyone the words. Then they made us all sing it. Then they had us all come up with things that were hard for us on our missions and we made up songs to learn to love them. I LOVE Sister and President Choi so much!

Something I've really been thinking about this week is the importance of not just believing IN Christ, but believing ON Christ. For me, the difference is the way that we live our lives. I think that truly believing on Christ a person will live their live centered on his teaching and try to become more like him. So it's my goal this week to better believe on Christ and not just in him.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and love. Les quiero muchisimo!

Con Amor,

Hermana Pier

Hola!!!!

 

I'm sorry, I have no time to write this week! We are heading to the temple and I don't have much time! So this will be quite the short letter! This week included getting to know lots of people and doing all sorts of service! I am just so glad that I'm here serving a mission. Any of y'all who have the chance, DO IT! You'd never regret it! It's amazing to see the Lord giving you strength to do things that wouldn't be possible without him.

 

Sorry for the shortness but to make up for it here's a great picture! After on of our lessons this week one of our investigators asked if she could braid our hair and this was the end result. Hermana Phillips and I liked our hair. But Hermana Enos' braid stuck straight out from her head! We got a good laugh out of it.

 

 

 

The other photo is the cute little boy we have to play with during the class where we teach English. We try to distract him so that his mom can play attention. Alejandro is the cutest!

 

 

Adios!

Con Amor,

Hermana Pier

It's already been 2 months? WHAT?!

It was another beautiful Washington week! If you were to go outside and see how pretty it is where you are, and then multiply that by about 32,000, you almost would be able to imagine how beautiful it is here. I have fallen in love with North Bend and this area. There is one thing that people forgot to mention to me though, the fact that there are spiders EVERYWHERE! I think I have seen more spiders and bugs in the last three weeks then I have in my entire life. Seriously ever! My fear of bugs may or may not have resulted in my flinging a handful of chips all over the dining room this week. No worries, it ended up just being a burnt chip! All is well!
 

This week I really have realized why I'm here serving a mission, I will get to that... After a few stories!
 

Well firstly, we had Zone Conference this week and it was AMAZING! President Choi is the best. EVER! He's challenged us to sing all the time, "Have fun with the spirit!", and "If you don't like something, like it!". Welp, I'll be completely honest, knocking doors was not my favorite thing. One day, we had just had another door slammed in our face when President Choi voice popped into my head saying "If you don't like it, Like it!". So I decided to like it. And I started singing,

"Knock, Knock, Knock!
I love to knock!
I love to knock on doors,
Knock, Knock, knock!"

We just started laughing and it really made it so much better. And every time we have hard times tracting, we start to sing that silly song! And now I realized it's all about my attitude. Someone who is really ready for our message could be waiting behind one of those doors. We do find people who have desires to come closer to Christ and it's amazing!
 

The second blessing this week was Marco. He just continues to amaze me with the love he has for his Heavenly Father and for his desire to know him more. He meets with us and he has studied the scriptures so much and is praying all the time and he honestly is an amazing example to me. There was one experience that really stuck out to me. We were talking to him and a scripture from the Book of Mormon popped into my head and I thought, "Oh that would be a really great scripture to share with him." So I opened to it and then saw that Hermana Enos had opened to the same scripture, so obviously it was a very important scripture to share with him. We were about to talk to him about it when he says, "I remember reading a scripture the other day and what were talking about really reminds me of it." And went on to quote the exact scripture we both had open! WHAT! Let's just say he is a spiritual giant. For being a short little guy (He's like 5') he sure does have a lot of spiritual strength.
 

Okay, so back to what I really realized this week about serving. I was reading my Book of Mormon and was in Mosiah when King Benjamin is talking to his people and something really stuck out to me. In chapter 5 is says that there is no other name that salvation comes through except for through Jesus Christ. It then says we need to know the name by which we are called and know the voice by which we are called. And then verse 13 says, " For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?" This really made me think about how important Christ is in my life, and what he means to me. Since being out here, I'm growing to more fully appreciate my Savior and everything he has done for me. I'm starting to better understand the importance of Christlike love and service. I think we'd all love to be able to stand before our Savior some day and truly KNOW him. Not just know facts about him but to have felt ourselves change through his atonement and help others as his did. And I know that it's possible if we put the Lord first in our lives.
 

Y'all have the best weeks ever!!! Look for chances to serve others and be great examples! Thank you for your letters and what not. You are the best!!!!!! Les quiero!
 

Con Amor,
 

Hermana Pier

Week Number 2

Can I just say that being a missionary is honestly the best thing in the entire world. WITHOUT a doubt. I'm loving it here SO much and I already love the people here so much! Since there have only been Spanish speaking missionaries here for about 3 months the work is still slow here but it's DEFINITELY progressing!
 

Marco is one of our main progressing investigators and he is the best! The missionaries met him back in May and he didn't have time to talk but said that he would call them and come to church sometime. Well about a month and half later, HE DID! He called a couple weeks ago and came to church and has been coming every week! We met with him twice this week and the first time he just kept rubbing his arms from having chills we explained that those feelings were the spirit. He listens and desires to know more but told us that he wanted us to know that he didn't want to be baptized, he just wants to learn more.Well on our next meeting we talked a lot about the Doctrine of Christ (Everyone should go read 2 Nephi 31 cause it's a very powerful part of the Book of Mormon) and about baptism because he was asking a lot about it. We showed him the font and talked and the Spirit was so strong. He told us the he wants to be baptized someday. That's the best thing we could ever hear! He said he wants to meet together as often as possible and wants to learn more so he can be baptized. He is so amazing and has such strong desires to grow closer to Jesus Christ.

Other than that this week has consisted of lots of service, meetings and knocking doors. Oh, and I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday. The entire meeting was centered around missionary work. It's amazing to see people get more and more excited. Really often we have people going to lessons with us and they help the investigators so much.
 

And to make this the most exciting week yet in my mission, out of the whole 2 weeks I've been out, I GOT PROPOSED TO! Hahaha no worries people he was 65 years old. And drunk during the proposal. We were at this house teaching a lesson and a bunch of men live there, so we typically end up teaching a few of them depending on who is home when we go over. Well good old Andre was highly intoxicated and would just keep telling us random things and not listen to our message. He just randomly stopped and pointed to me and proceeded to say that he really likes me and that he really wants to take me back to Mexico and get married. Hahaha we had to tell him I couldn't date on a mission. Oh boy! His handshake at the end of the lesson was a bit WAY too long for comfort and I was slightly concerned. My companions thought it was the funniest thing ever. For any of you interested in seeing my future hubby, he's the one right next to me in this picture.

 



My Fiance!!



I'm so grateful that I can be here. I've never been this happy in my life and even though we get doors slammed in our face and a lot of people have no desire to talk to us, it's definitely worth it. Loving and serving people 24/7 is the life! Les quiero mucho!

 

Hermana Pier




Tri-panionship

Field Week 1!

I'M IN WASHINGTON! YAY!!!!!
 

Well of course I had to start this new experience off with an adventure. The morning I left the MTC we had to leave our building my 4:20AM to be on time. Well apparently none of us Hermanas set our alarms. Whoops. So I woke up at 4:05 feeling a little to rested for it to be 3:30. I look at my watch and just jumped out of bed and I was so worried about being late. Luckily we all made it to our buses on time and got to the airport safe. At the airport I got to talk to my family which was amazing! And saw my district and got to say my last goodbyes. Que triste! I love them so much!!!!! The actual flight was the longest 2 hours of my life because of the nerves, but I was actually able to talk to someone about the church and place a Book of Mormon so that was cool!
 

After we got interviewed by President Choi. It took FOREVER cause there were 37 missionaries that came in that day. It was the biggest group the Seattle mission has ever received. Cool huh? And then we got assigned our companions. I'm actually in a trio, so I have two other companions! My trainer is Hermana Phillips and Hermana Enos is our other companion, she's been here for a few months waiting for her visa to Argentina. They're both so sweet and great. I've been able to learn so much from them this last week and they're just the greatest! We live with some members here, The Marrs and they are the most amazing people. They help us missionaries out so much and we really couldn't be luckier. Plus they have a cute doggy!
 

My area covers North Bend and Snoqualmie and Issoquah. This area opened 2 transfers ago and it's such a great place to be. Us Hermanas cover the whole Valley and there is a set of English Speaking Elders in each of the towns as well. We cover a larger area because there are not very many Spanish Speakers here, but there are definitely plenty to keep us busy.
 

This week consisted of lots of lessons, knocking doors (FOR HOURS!), singing, and doing service for others. It's the best!
 

On miracle that happened this week was that we had 3 Spanish speaking investigators attend church. (This basically never happens.) And on top of that around 6 or 7 people in the ward bore there testimonies in Spanish because they knew there were non-members there. The spirit was really powerful and it was amazing to see the support of the ward members. We have chances for members to come to lessons a lot with us and they are so helpful!
 

One other really cool experience happened this week. We are teaching a family and they are the most amazing people EVER! A couple weeks before I got here their family went through a really hard time and they really have bonded with the missionaries through it. Well, the father is very religious in the Pentecostal (No idea if that is how you spell it) church and for a long time had no interest in listening to anything about the LDS church. Lately though, instead of going into his room or something when the Hermanas came over, he has been coming and talking with us. He said that one night he had a dream and that the sister missionaries were in it. The dream was that the missionaries came over and were helping him to wash all of his clothes white. He said that he knew it was them helping him come closer to Christ. He still isn't wanting to attend our church or anything, but he really is just an amazing person. And I hope we can do exactly that and help him grow closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Companions

MTC Week 6

Well I officially have less than 24 hours left here in the good old MTC. Que Triste! My companion just left me to head to Chile. I love Hermana Lone!!! This is getting real. This letter will probably be very short so sorry about that! This week has been amazing though and I have grown so much. Probably the best week here.

 

Well first off we got to host this week. This just means that when the new missionaries are dropped off we meet them at the curb and help them get all the things and get to their classes. It was cute seeing all the families saying goodbye but at the same time it was so sad seeing people crying. I kept remembering when I was dropped off and how in shock and scared I must have looked.

 

Every week as the districts leave, on Sunday night our entire zone gets together and they sing "God be with you til be meet again" (In Spanish of course) to each other. But we sing it really happy and try to make it not a sad moment. Luckily I didn't start crying but cute Hermana Lone did. Having it be us that was getting sang to was so strange. I'm actually leaving, 24 hours from now I will be in Seattle. WOW!

 

So the last exciting thing that happened was in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. So every Sunday one Elder and one Sister give talks in sacrament meeting just a little short 5 minute one. In Spanish. But they don't tell you who is going to be speaking until they announce it during church. It's how they get everyone to always prepare talks. Well just guess who was called on the week? Yep, me! But the scary thing was that day President Lon B Nally, President of the entire MTC, was in our little zones sacrament meeting. Well I gave my talk about the Holy Ghost in Spanish and it went well. Yay! Heavenly Father definitely helped me out during it.

 

Well that's all about all for this week. I can't believe I'm going to be in the field doing real missionary work. This week I am focusing my life on being more focused on what I can do to help those around me. I want to put others first always and I invite you all to do the same. Look for chances to help people around you. Even little things.

 

-Hermana Pier

 

 

MTC Week 5

Hola!
 

I have one week left in the MTC! What?! Not possible! We got our travel plans on Friday and it was the best day ever! I leave next Tuesday morning at 4:30 am to head to the airport but my actual flight's at 8:30. It's so crazy that it's finally here, I'm actually going to be in Seattle serving. WOW! As excited as I am to leave, we're all really struggling when we think about it.  Hermanas Lone, Broberg, and I get along so well, like we've been friends for year. That's okay though, 17 months and we'll all be in Provo!
 

This week we had to say goodbye to our amazing teacher Hermano Monroe. He is leaving to be a teacher at the MTC in Mexico. :( We're all really sad because he was the best teacher. His fake "investigator" Gregorio helped us go so much when we were here. After our last lesson with him the other night he talked to each of us individually and we got to talk about our experience here. We had so many spiritual experiences with him so it was cool to talk to him. As we talked about how certain things we'd helped the spirit convey had helped him a ton in real life. And some of the things he'd felt prompted to say were exactly the things that we needed and that had changed us the most. We really realized just how much God's hand is in our lives.
 

Another thing that really helped me grow this week was a little journal I started. When I was in high school I started this thing where I had pages in the back of my journal where I would write about when I saw God's hand in my life. I don't know why I didn't think of it until now but I got a package from my Mommy (thanks Mom) with these cute little mini journals I decided to start a tender mercies of the Lord journal. Since doing this and recording all the miracles in my life I see the Lord in my life so often. I challenge you all to start looking for the tender mercies in your own life and I promise you'll notice how often the Lord truly is with us.
 

Last week I told you that our district was dropping like flies and my time finally came this week. DUN DUN DUN! Okay not really but I had some very embarrassing moments. Firstly, one day when we were playing four square (I'm kind of a pro) I completely biffed it and killed my knee. I know, playing four square of all things. I have a really cool battle wound but the only problem is that we kneel and pray a lot so it's a bit of a struggle at times. Embarrassing moment #2. So since our teacher is leaving, our new teacher, Brother Hopoate (He knows Devan). came to observe our class a few times. Well his first time there the teacher told us to grab our Preach My Gospel books and I couldn't find mine. So, I got out of my desk and searched for it while everyone just waited for me. I finally found it and stood up to go sit in my desk and guess what?! I slipped on one of my church pamphlets. So basically my life is just an embarrassing struggle.
 

I love you all and thank you for the letters, packages, and emails. I appreciate them so much. Sorry if I don't get to all the emails very fast. I don't have very much computer time.
 

-Hermana Pier
 

Ps Happy Birthday this week to my Mommy and my Grandma Pier. I love you both so much!

 

 

 

Travel Plans !!!

MTC week 4

This week was definitely one of ups and downs. Let's just say that our district is basically dropping like flies. To start the week off Hermana Broberg got super sick and had an awful sinus infection so for three days she was stuck in bed. So sad! We took turns spending time with her in the room and mission class. Because of that I taught with Herman Cole a few times and we even taught in a few tripanionships. I'm really grateful things are back to normal! We missed having Hermana Broberg in class and I missed teaching with Hermana Lone.

Speaking of Hermana Lone, she got some weird warts on her feet from not wearing her shower shoes so we got to spend a few hours in the doctors office while she got that dealt with. And in a week or so we have to take a van to a podiatrists office to get her all better. Funny story though, so that day her foot was completely numb and she was struggling with the whole walking thing. We were in the hallway saying a prayer together before we went into one of our appointments and halfway through the prayer she lost her footing in the foot she can't feel and she just fell to the ground. It's a good thing God has a sense of humor cause we have never laughed so hard in our lives.

Next, Hermana Cole got sick and lost her voice. And then Elder Wayman messed up his foot playing volleyball. That means Elder Woodfield, Elder Davison, or I is next. Scary!!!!

But to counteract all the rough times this week, Hermana Lone and I have been called to be the Sister Training Leaders. Basically what we do is interview all the Sisters in the zone and check up on them. And then give tours and help the new sisters get used to the MTC. Until the Sister Training Leaders right now leave in a few days, we are technically the Sister Training Leaders in Training. Has a nice ring to it huh??

One thing that I've gained a ton this week is a huge testimony of the Book of Mormon. I mean, Ive always had one but as I've continued to read and learn more, I've realized it truly is the most powerful book in the world. In two weeks and one day from today I will be in the field teaching real people the gospel. I'm so grateful for this opportunity. Write me!

-Hermana Pier