Christmas in Grenada

Christmas down here is a lot different actually.. There are a few people who have lived in england or canada or the states who do it pretty similar.. but also there is a majority of people who have Christmas as just another Fete. and then you have the 7th day adventists and Jehovah's witnesses who teach very strongly against christmas a a "Pagan Holiday" sooooo haha its a little bit of everywhere.. but its a wonderful holiday that a lot of people love! 

 

A Lot of family time around this time of year as well.. 

 

But things in Grenada for me are really fun! its hard to get to meet people around this time because everyone is so busy trying to get things set up for christmas. 

So setting return appointments has almost turned into yeah after the Christmas.. 

 

But its real fun. we will actually be going down to St Georges on Christmas Eve and staying there all christmas since there is no travel going on christmas day!

so we are going to watch frozen this year and talk to family :) 

 

this past sunday i actually got to give a talk again haha, no planning really happened so we had no speakers so i filled in. but i talked about prayer this sunday and read the story of the three trees that you sent to me and its was great ! everyone liked it! 

 

Oh yeah i got to conduct church on sunday as well! its was great haha. 

 

we are really trying to establish a solid foundation for the church here! its kinda hard but we are working on it. This saturday we will be having one baptism! Her name is "SH", She is "GA's" Daughter! so it will be good! "GA" is still working on getting married so she can get baptised herself! but its good. 

 

We were supposed to have 5 getting baptised this saturday but "GL" got sick on sunday and her and her children didnt come to church. So we will have to push it back a week! and another man named ben didnt come so we will push his back as well! 

 

But we are working hard. Unfortunatly we didnt get the new building yet. West indian People are so slow... haha usually if someone calls interested in renting your place that has been vacant for months, you would get right on it and try to meet them in person.. haha but im Still waiting for them to "call me back" so ill keep looking! 

 

but all is well! we met a cool lady named "L"! She was very curious about the Book Of Mormon! and so we explained it for her and taught her the restoration and she commited to be baptized if she knew it was true! 

 

Oh one cool Thing.. Remember how i told you president Mehr called us the "Dream team" yeah so this week the Ap's are coming into grenada to do some trade off's to find out what we are doing so president can teach it to the rest of the mission! haha i really hope i can do the right things and impress them haha. 

 

But all in all it was a wonderful week! we got a whole ton of new investigators!

Gotta Love being a missionary!

 

Love Elder Pierson!

Sons of Mosiah

Lots to Tell you about this week!

first off somthing cool that happened is that i got to eat lunch with a 70! Elder Gamiette is the area 70 in the carribean and we just happened to run into him at the mall when we went for lunch after our district meeting! so that was cool! i actually didnt recognize him cause liat lost his bag so he was wearing for "p-day" clothes he bought haha.

And hmm well for church i have only had to sing twice! and that was in St.Lucia. oh and once in St. Vincent! but never so far in Grenada!

This sunday was really fantastic! we actually had many people there! we hit a personal best at 22 people at church! we had to pull out chairs from the dining table to put in the congregation. we have had some success in finding a building! we got the number of one of the places we wanted to rent from and we just have to call them.

oh any i gave a talk on sunday! My talk was on GIfts! Gifts we give to God and Gifts God Gives to us!

So Cool thing about this past sunday was we had 5 investigators at Church! and 3 of them have baptismal Dates! for the 27th! so they are pregressing really well. her name is "GX" and her two children "CX" and "JX". They are cool kids. WE talked with her about the why of sacrament meeting and how it was so important. So she made it her duty to come!

We have a lot of people who were supposed to come but who didn't. i think we need to go and visit them more to encourage them!

We had an amazing experience last night as well! as we were going to one of our lessons with a man named "AE", i realized that we were an hour early. so we couldnt go yet. (by the way teaching a lot of men has always been a problem here) but going to teach "AE" we decided to go down a small over grown path that had maybe two houses at the end. So we went and found a wonderful family at one house the man was awesome! really loves christ and was happy to talk to us, he was really interested in the Book of Mormon. So it was great there! plus he introduced to his WIFE (legally married!) and she loves to crochet. so i talked to her about that! and she showed me all the things she had been making! like bags and table cloths and stuff!
Cool Family!

Then we asked them if they knew anyone we should go and talk to, and they reffered us to his neighbor saying that he was tryin to change his life so he thought maybe we could help! turned out that man was a really cool guy we had contacted a long time a go! an he is awesome! he is trying to change his life alot! quiting drinking smoking and liming with bad company! so it was an awesome night! we taught a lot of men that day! Glorious !

Let me see other cool things is "KA" makes some delicious punch!
"GA" is working on her marriage , "GA's" daughter is getting baptized on the 27 and all is well in Grenville! 

I love being a missionary! i think i should do it like the sons of mosiah for 14 years or so haha sound good?

Anyways i have been teaching about the sabbath day using a wonderful experience. About bikes and mud guards. When you have one you keep yourself more fully unspotted from the mud. When not your get splattered to bits! the sabbath day is like a mud guard! haha great!

oh yeah and i am actually getting moved out of the WIM come july..... haha kind of. in july they are splitting the mission into the barbados mission and the trinidad mission.. So yeah that is cool! i get to serve in two mission!

Love you so much!
Love Elder Pierson

Enjoying the Gospel

All is indeed well in the small island of Grenada! Much fun and success is being had!

This Sunday was actually a rather good Sunday! we had quite a few new faces at church! "GA" came and brought her kids and "KA" also came! we got them with the bus and it was wonderful! we had a pretty full bus!  

 

"GA" is going to be going into Grenville today or tomorrow to check on her marriage papers! she is working pretty hard in order to get baptised! 

 

We had two Great speakers on Sunday! sister Francis Spoke and so did Elder Padilla! Both talks were very enlightening!

I love Sundays! its a little hectic when we are trying to get a lot done and its mainly missionaries trying to do it all and fellowship with the members and the investigators! but hey tough things are always the most fun!

We had some cool new people we met! we still have to go back ad teach them but we will do that just now!

I'm so excited to see what will happen in the future here. The Group is growing bigger and people are enjoying the Gospel so much!  

 

On Saturday I had a cool experience. some of the members of the Group and us cleaned the church real good! And while we were there it was just a lot of fun really really happy! One of the little girls wanted to take my camera and take photos. so I let her. and we were posing for photos and smiling and it felt as though I was with you guys! like I was with my real family! 

 

These members here are awesome! I love em! 

 

I love you too! 

 

Take care!

Love Elder Pierson 

 

A bus to pick up members

Grenada was wonderful this week!  

 

A lot of cool new interesting things have been happening since i last talked to you! 

 

highlight of the week would probably be the announcement that "GA" is getting Married!! She is one of our sweet investigators who wants to get baptised so bad but she couldn't because she was living with her boyfriend! well I guess she talked with him again and they are working on the paper work Right now!! Whooo!!! she is so excited! 

 

In another marriage announcement "KA" and her boyfriend are seriously talking about it now! we taught them both the law of chastity and they really understand how important it is to God. Before our last meeting with them we really didnt have much success with him. he seemed kind of just there. But this last time it seems like this time he was interested! we were talking with him about the piece of land he is clearing to plant up above his  house and he seemed to be real excited. He told us he is going to get us some lettuce and some lemon grass so we can make lemon grass tea (best stuff ever)  

 

He is still working on his  bus so that they can come to church real often. He told us that they would come a lot more regular once the bus was finished.

About a bus that is also a success of the week. This week we had a bus go around and pick up the members and investigators who live far!. Now the reason this was such a success was because when we told the members they seemed to have a spark to do missionary work rekindle. They have been working with their friends for a while and a lot of them accept the message but the distance was too far for them to really pursue it. Now there is a bus that will pass they are excited to start inviting their friends again!

We also met some really cool people this week who have truly been prepared by the Lord! we have so many contacts we have to go back and teach!

Whiew ! great times here in Grenville.

We had a small church attendance this Sunday but it will start to grow more and more just now!

I really do love this work and I am so excited to see all the people we are teaching grow more in their faith! Making changes to please God.

In church this past Sunday Sister Jasian was teaching about missionary work and she asked how doing missionary work makes me feel and really thinking about it, the Most joy so far comes from helping people make changes to come closer to God! and true sadness does come when someone rejects the gospel! 

I am so Glad and Grateful that God gave me Such a wonderful Mother and Father to teach me the ways that are right while I was in my youth!

I love you very much!

Enjoy your week! 

 

Love Elder Pierson

No Hurricanes Here

Things in grenada are going well! We have had no hurricane damage, no hurricane at all for that matter. it must have passed high.   

I must say of all weather phenomena i miss the snow the most. but hey just now right! 

 

church in Grenville was interesting.. our Group leader was in the process of moving to gouyave so i think since he told the branch president he thought he was released or something.. .

soooo he didnt assign talks and he wasnt there this sunday. apparently losing a family of 4 people really cuts down your numbers as well. soo Elder leany conducted and we both gave talks again this week. I spoke on tithing. i think i had 30 mins to prepare and i had maybe 7 bullet points and 3 quotes and somehow i made it last for 20 minutes. :) so It was an interesting sunday. we had about 12 people at church.

so now we have lots of room for people to sit! "KA" didnt come and neither did "GA" but we are working on it. We have a couple Families we are working with so The attendace should go up soon. 

 

There is actually one really cool experiance i would like to share with you.

We had a referral from our branch mission leader Rodger. this ladys name is "EN". We went and we visited her and she seemed pretty interested, we taught her and her boyfriend and they felt the spirit. Now we scheduled to see them again but she got sick and they cancelled. so we called again a week later and got a meeting with "EN". Now when we went there she showed us all the research she had been doing, She found Mormon.Org and found answers to her questions. She Now feels Godly sorrow for Breaking the law of Chastity and really wants to get her life in line with the will of God. Her Boyfriend supports her and also agreed to be baptized. They have 4-5 children together and also have a Bus. They are fixing a part that broke about 2 weeks back, but once its fixed she says the whole family will come to church. She now wants to get married more than ever and we get to go back tonight to see how things in that was are shaping up. It was a great success i have seen this week.

OHh by the way in other news i did get my full transfer call and i am actually training again! his name is Elder Padilla and he is from The Philippines. So it is awesome!

Thanks for all the support you give me! and also thank you for the package. The hair clippers were sorely needed. They dont know how to cut "White People Hair" in the west indies so he messed up my head pretty bad haha.

Love you much

Love Elder Pierson

The Parable of the Cell Phone

so this week in grenada is fantastic! we had  lots of cool people to met in a shorter time period. 

 

since we are a group we dont show conference in our group so we all go down to the st georges branch to meet and watch! so it was awesome! 

i think that was the most full the bus has ever been coming down for church. we got to pack it vincy style! (4 people -3 seats) so it was great. 

 we even got some of our investigators to come! One is a lady named "KA", we have been working with "KA" for a long time! she is prettty cool, she believes that what we share is true but it has been hard to get her to act, like to come to church. but this sunday we got her to come to conference. she even brought her son. so it was cool to see her moving. both me and elder leany feel that this first step was the first of many about to happen. every time we go over to visit her her desire to get baptized increases. when we first met her and commited her to be baptized if she knew it  was true she said yes, but was a bit scared. now   she knows its true and is no longer scared of baptism. 

 

another who came to church is a lady named "GA", we have taught "GA" maybe 3 times now, and she reads the book of mormon so much when we arent there, for example we left her to read the introduction and when we returned she had read the introduction the testimonies of the 3 and the 8 witnesses and most of the prophet joseph smiths testimony. so she is great. she came to conference and brought her 3 children! so its great! most of our recent converts and less active members were there too actually! it was a great sunday!

conference itself was great tho. i really enjoyed the food between sessions and of it wasnt ice cream i guess the planned on bringing pizza! 

but as for my favourite conference talk its hard to say. i really enjoyed them all. one that really stands out is probably elder bednar, how helping somone feel the same joy and blessing that you felt from the gospel of christ really stood out to me! 

im going to review my notes again and make a more detailed list of things learned.

I have been thing alot about my use of parables this week tho, i was reading Jesus the Christ and i have found the power  and effectiveness of parables. however i have reason to change some of my parables to things that happen in the everyday carribean life. we learn from christs teaching that his parables were said in a way that the humble farmer fisherman or any other would think on the teaching while going through everyday life.

 One that i though  of actually came from elder leanys parable, baptism is like signing up for a phone contract. this contract last for only a short while. we sign up for a phone plan and we get service. we are baptized and we get the spirit. in order to keep signal on your phone you must renew. same with the spirit you must renew. the sacrament is that renewal. 

now my thought came while i was walking past a digicel store and they were advertizing  their wide range of coverage and it still had some spots where you would recieve no service. the same thing goes with the spirit. God has outlined that coverage map and we cannot leave the boundaries he has established if we want to be entitled to the spirit. he will not take it away from us. we lost it as we wander into areas we shouldnt go. 

i  love you much

Love Elder Pierson