Transfers and Flooding

I am doing Great! I found out about the transfer and I am staying with Elder Schroeder for another transfer still in the city of Castries. I am excited and happy that I will get to be there for "S" baptism! I think me staying with Elder Schroeder is bringing to pass part of my patriarchal blessing. About me knowing the scriptures well. He knows them so well and is sharing so much information and insight on them! I really enjoy having my blessing just right there to look at and learn from all the time.

I really enjoy my companions and all the missionaries around me! They are sweet! this transfer only one is leaving! Elder Larson. so thats sad. But everything else is staying the same! The sisters are kinda crazy excited about everything(like all sister missionaries) but yeah I enjoy all the missionaries on this island hopefully Elder Larsons replacement is awesome as well!  I am sure he will!

Ok so favourite part about this last week.. well my favourite part about last week was the amount of contacting we did! We got to know so many people! It was amazing! There are so many people who are willing to listen to what we have to say. It's truly amazing to see how many people the Lord has prepared and put in our path! I'm excited for this next transfer where I will no longer be training so I will have one more hour in the day for teaching and tracting. That hour was previously used for training! so I'm excited for the transfer!

So this Sunday was a little different. We only had one hour of church. Only the sacrament meeting. President Debouville let everyone go home early to figure their lives out. I don't know if you heard really how bad the storm that passed was. I said it rained a lot but that was an understatement. It rained 260ml in one go and all the locals say it was way worse than hurricane Thomas. The amount of devastation that has occurred has been unreal. There has been no water for the past 4-5 days, and when the pipes would open for an hour or two the water was filthy. So me and Elder Schroeder are really lucky we have a water tank that holds 1000 gallons and a pump that works so we were good to shower and drink water and stuff (all missionaries have a water filter) all the other missionaries went a couple days without showering. So we were lucky. oh and the view fort missionaries are coming up here because that is where the destruction really happened and they have no water still and are struggling to get water. So they get a vacation in Castries for a while. But the people here are really suffering. We have been carrying water to give to people and they have been so thankful, but the storm was a disaster for the island. 3 bridges were washed away, 4 roads were washed out and 7 people have died so far. All from the storm so far. So we are trying to help out. But there are places like Bexon that are covered in 3-4 foot of mud from all the landslides. The Church is sending us 25000 hygiene and supply kits to help out. Hopefully things will get figured out soon. We are doing out best to help! So yeah don't be worried about me but just letting you know whats going on in the island. Oh and this storm hit three other islands. The one that got the worst was St. Vincent. We are going there on Thursday for zone conference. (I get to fly again) but hopefully we can help out there. Oh 24 people have died in St.Vincent so far. It was hit so much worse. But once again do not worry I am doing just fine!

Oh we had an investigator named "O" come with his two kids! He is awesome! :)

Anyways I'm glad I'm here and I get to stay here and I'm working harder that ever now and I'm so excited to see progress on the island. Oh something cool. So St. Lucia had no baptisms for a year or two until two transfers ago and now we have had 5 or six in three transfers! :)

The work is truly hastening! So thank you all for your prayers and I love you. 

 

Love Elder Pierson

I don't often get cold, but when I do I make sure to write about it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

So St.Lucia is doing amazing! There was a crazy flooding storm today. So as I am writing this letter I am kinda soaked sitting in the air conditioning. This is the second time only that I have been cold on my mission. haha The first was when I got to be a witness in another baptism on Saturday. 

We are going to cut our tree down today! So I can put the presents under it today ! :) 

We had our best investigator at church on sunday for the second week in a row. As for church attendance, it was lacking about 20-30 as opposed to 60 because we had a Christmas party on Saturday and people here tend to not come if you have a big activity sometime in the week! Which was fun by the way. Elder Schroeder made some bakes that our investigator gave us the recipe too!

So haha funny thing about the countdown... ehh I uhhhh... might  um have maybe..... opened them all early... cough cough.

They were amazing I love it so much! It's great to hear from all the people at home!

The people here have no problem with meeting us because of the season. The only problem we have is that this season is the tourist season so people are often out trying to make money off of the tourists! So some people aren't home. But for the most part people are excited to see us. Also a lot of religions don't celebrate Christmas down here because it has been turned into a big drunken party so we even have a few appointments on Christmas day! 

Anyways first official for sure baptism for me and Elder Schroeder will be happening on Jan 4. Our awesome investigator who makes delicious food prayed and fasted after we taught her about fasting and she got her answer for the fourth. She said it came because she looked at a calendar saw the fourth and a thought came into her mind of "I have 4 children to save(get baptized), I will get baptized on the 4th." So that date will not move! Hopefully I'm still here!

Merry Christmas! Love Elder Pierson

The Christmas Season

So as for my companion he is feeling much better. he fully recovered this week! like in wednesday! 

Church this week was Great! 

We have 4 Young men aged kids who are super smart Investigating and they were going to come to church, but they pulled an alnighter one of those days before and fell asleep and slept through there alarms for church. so sad but we did get four other investigators come to church. "S" the one who makes amazing food! and she is excited to come to the christmas party! on saturday and to church the next day! other than that we had two more investigators there! 

So as far as Teaching investiagtors I am going to go back to that group of young men! we had a lesson with them last night and we taught the plan of salvation, and they loved it. they had so many questions and we didnt have enough time to teach them. so during P-day Today we are going to the Beach with them and teach them the rest. also at the beach we are going to do some fllips and stuff. like backflips and front flips and handsprings and stuff. 

also! i have been really enjoying the christmas season! people really like to think about Jesus and talk religion during this season. those are the good people. if they dont talk about Jesus during Chiristmas they are probably drinking and partying the season away. so its good down here! we have so many investigators who are progressing now! its cool to see when something makes sense and they know its true! Bearing testimony and praying for help from the Holy Ghost really makes teaching so much more effective! 

One more specific Lesson that was Great was with a girl named "ML". She has been investigating for a long time and she is scared to get baptised because she doesnt want to mess up again. so we taught her alot this past tuesday and that whole lesson the spirit was there. there was no doubt about it, she told us she was feeling it because she says she always crys whe she feels the spirit powerfully, and then later in the lesson while we were bearing testimony she asked us if we were trying to make her cry. but she is an awesome investigator and im excited to help her realize her potential and to fulfill her desire to get baptised! 

Love You

Elder Pierson

Enjoying the warmth

Things in St Lucia are... Warm.. and touristy. since i have been here i and seen 46 Cruise ships. about 30 some have been from  this transfer alone! anyways Kinda Jealous and not at all Jealous at the same time about your weather! Want to Trade?  

 My Companion is feeling much better. his bones no longer feel like they are super weak and his skin doesnt feel like its being rubbed raw so. hes better. just gets tired really easily now. and not eating to much but he is well enough for missionary work! :)

As for the baptisms... Either the people just dont understand the commandments or they dont come to church.. so we have had to push back and cancel baptismal dates. but we have a bunch set for the first Saturday in 2014! hopefully we can help them understand! but anyways this sunday was a particularly sad sunday. we had no investigators come to church! we dont know why :( but we will check up! 

 

Oh Yes i loved going in the ocean! i felt kinda rebelious and like i was completly following rules all at the same time! it was really cool to see a baptism tho! 

 

And yes all is well we had a youth activity and we had 8 investigating youth there. dont worry i can jump the furthest out of all them :) haha but they can do backflips and 360 handsprings and stuff so they are pretty cool guys!  

 

Anyways love you ! and i will keep working hard!

Elder Pierson

I joined a gang

Ok so first of all you should send me a picture of snow sometime haha:)

Oh and I think I joined a gang? A guy named SamBo introduced us to his whole gang! He likes us I think... haha and he offered us quite a large amount of weed.. haha. We said no but it was an interesting night!

Any ways other than joinging a gang. The week was a bit slow.. My companion Elder Schroeder decided to get Dengue fever. So we were inside a lot. I got to read a lot of stuff tho! So that was good. But as for lessons we only got a few. 

As for Sunday. It was good . Our senior couple elder and sister Gartz are leaving.. and the people LOVED them, so there was a huge party and there were so many people there! We had 90 people at Church instead of our usual 50-60,

so church was great. Elder Gartz was the acting branch president but now he is gone the branch needed to be re organized. So President Mehr came! Super cool! He is honestly the smartest and the best gospel teacher I have ever met.

The testimonies this Sunday were all from the Gartz' and the new presidency so the De bovilles, the Marquis, and the Felix'. So there wasn't time for any other testimonies. Oh other than the Gublers, the new senior couple.

But we got to go meet with Granny with President Mehr and everything he teaches and shares just blows my mine! Definitely a fan of listening to him!

Church this Sunday was a lot of fun! 

So not much to report other than being part of a baptism! :) 

Yeah I went in the ocean. Some of the other elders had a baptism and they asked me to be the other witness so it was cool! Not my companionships baptism but I still got to be a part of it! :) 

So this week has been slow but a good experience! Good learning! 

One of my favourite investigators hasn't come to church :( She gets sick every Saturday and Sunday so far. Not like a fake doesn't want to come to church but like legit dengue and other stuff.. so next week !

Gotta pick out our Christmas banana tree! And I also miss those singing things but the people here love Christmas music so we have heard it for the last 2 months. Lots of fun, and its all rap and redone music so its interesting.

Yes American thanks giving was great! We had a chance to celebrate it. President Mehr paid for every area in the mission to have Thanksgiving dinner! So we had 2 turkeys and so much food and a good time!

Oh and I will try not to cut my fingers off but no promises! His Companion has a machete...and there is a lot of fruit over there....Jeff has become a fruit ninja. 

Ah well love you !!

I'll keep being a good missionary :)

Love Elder Pierson