April Fools Lies...

 Welp, this was a good week. I got an email today that my best friend was engaged. SAY WHAT?! After having a freak out moment in the library I found out that was a lie. Goodness. Hahah April fools... I should have known better than falling for that. Welp, I've been sick but we still went out so it was all good. This week not too many big things happened but it was just a lot of little daily miracles that made is such an amazing week. So, I'm sorry this will be short again but I just want to tell one little tale.

 One of the things that has been amazing is the Giles family. They are still active and have made the temple their next goal. One of Petra's daughters, who is also a less active, is grown up and has her own family and has a 9 year old daughter, Arleth, who still hasn't been baptized. Arleth has came to church the last 4 weeks with her grandma and really likes it so we've been trying to get in the see her mom to get permission to teach her. And she is NEVER home. But this week we were finally able to get in and talk to her. :) Also about 3 minutes after we got there we heard a knock at the door and in walks another less active family that we have been trying to visit forever. It was perfect!

ANYWAYS, one last thing actually. I love the Seahurst Branch yesterday at Sunday we had a super amazing, spiritually strong testimony meeting. A lot of the youth bore their testimonies and there were a lot of tears. A heard some of the most sincere testimonies ever and then 2 of the youth started their mission papers!!!!! We also had a big combined meeting on missionary work for the third hour meeting and it was great. The entire branch is stepping it up and they are growing a lot. I see a huge difference in them even thinking back 5 months ago when i started here. I love it! 

Transfers are next week and I'll probably be leaving this area sadly but I love being a missionary. Go out and share the Gospel with your friends, I promise you, you will NEVER regret it.  

"It is impossible for us to fail when we do our best when we are on the Lord’s errand."—M. Russell Ballard

Con Amor,

Hermana McKay Pier

Over the Hump

This week I learned a lot. First off I hit my half way mark this week. Crazy! Time is flying by, I can't even believe it. Hermana Phillips and I made pinatas last P-day so we could celebrate but than we ended up liking them too much to hit and destroy them haha.

The work this week was pretty slow we dropped just about all of our investigators because they weren't progressing. We decided it was time to get some more investigators that were prepared for the message that we share. But after that point the work was still soooooo slow. About halfway through the week I was feeling a little down and one night Hermana Phillips and I were planning and decided that we had to try something different. Sometimes as missionaries when we knock doors we get into the same habits, "Hi we're the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We're in the area today offering service and sharing a message about Jesus Christ. Is there anything we can do for you family today?" But when we do that, we're not really letting the spirit guide us so that we can touch people personally and help them to hear what their Heavenly Father wants.

I tried to have a more positive attitude and to try to connect with the people I met on a person basis. To try and figure out what it was that Heavenly Father needed for them to hear. Any slowly we started seeing more people who were willing to talk to us.

One cool experience happened on 8:30 on Saturday night. Our plans had fallen through but a random house that we've driven by before kept popping into Hermana Phillip's head so we decided to head over to go knock it before the night was over. We did and it was a Hispanic family. We have been praying a trying to find a family to teach for a while and we know that God lead us to this family, hopefully they can progress and feel the truthfulness of our message. If not, at least we're planting seeds.

My favorite thing of the week was the New Member Fireside that was last night. Hearing the contersion stories of different people is so amazing and it really helps me see how much people NEED this gospel in their lives. Our Stake President talked at it and he is a convert to the church. He said that when he was baptized he told the missionaries he would only do it on 2 conditions: 1) That he would never have to have a calling and 2)That he would never have to give a talk. Hahahah I guess those didn't end up working out too well for him. Oh, also, some missionaries that served down in Mt Si came up to us and told us how Marco is doing amazing and how he goes out with the missionaries to help them teach 3 to 4 times a week. Made my life. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Con Amor,

Hermana Pier

Our Pinatas. Mine is the polka dot one.

Opps, sorry

Okay family I;m running out of time cause I wrote president choi and then answered all my personal emails and went to start writing a group email and it looks like time has gotten the bestr of me. I"M SORRY! I will be repenting and writing y'all the best letter ever next week. I'm sorry! But I love you all so much! 

here's some of the primary in the branch. 

The little girls mom used to be inactive but she's been coming lots lately! They live in the same apartment complex as us so we get to see them a lot and I just love her! 

Also cristal got really sick so we heart attacked her haha

"You said the water would be warm!!!!"

This week.... Cristal was baptized! YAY! We are so happy for her and she is so excited to be a member of the church. The day of her baptism was quite the adventure. Between the font starting to drain before the baptism, it being filled with freezing cold water, the Branch president member who was supposed to preside not showing up, and Hermana Phillips having an allergic reaction, life was CRAZY! Hahaha but all in all, everything was great because on of Heavenly Father's daughters made a HUGE step back to him! 

Another thing we're doing is we are visiting EVERYONE in the branch and sharing messages with them. It's so great! We're getting to know the members really well, helping them become more missionary minded, and helping them want to share the gospel with their friends. I LOVE THIS BRANCH! So much! 


Honestly not too much else happened this last week. We're going to work very hard to find more of Heavenly Father's prepared children.

Con Amor, 

Hermana Pier

Pictures

-Cristal and I at her baptism

-The Ramirez boys. We're teaching their family and they are very excited to come to church and primary activities :)

-And a bunch of the branch that was present at Cristal's baptism :)