Transfers to Guyana

We were at Hog Island This morning! 

it was a really wonderful P-Day activity! 

i really love liming at the beach whenever i get an opportunity to.. we are definitly Going to hog island When we come to see Grenada! 

 

but as for the Beaches i will no longer be able to Adore them. 

They dont have any beaches in Guyana 

So i guess ill have to Lime by the Stinky Rum Factory in Berbice. 

So yeah i am gettting moved to an area called Rose hall in Berbice Guyana. 

i leave early wednesday morning 6 am and get to Guyana at 2:30 carribean standard time (really most likely 4 or 5 haha) but yeah i am going to be sad to leave here! 

 

i was thinking its going to be unfortunate to leave such wonderful people and alot who were preparing for baptism! we have one planned for saturday coming! 

But i will wait for a picture from Elder Padilla. 

 

My new Companion is an Elder from wyoming named Elder Christianson. all i really know about him so far is that he is from the french side, just finished being a zone leader and he can Curl 200 pounds, oh and can bench 500 :0  

so we will be in guyana together and president said he will show me how to be District leader. so i am excited to work with him. 

 

Elder LEany told me that after the ap's came to visit and elder ferrin came with us he came back to get dropped off by the zone leader he told elder leany "Elder Pierson is a great missionary" 

i really enjoy Elder Ferrins company! 

 

But all was well this week!,  

Coolest experiance actually happened not to long ago. we went to teach this one lady we taught once when we contacted her.. 

oh a little background. we have been working on whats called a contract lesson, where you find out there concern and then commit them to baptism is through this gospel their concern is cured.. but we found her concern last time and it was "i Am really just looking for the right church for me to join."  

we taught her the Gospel and left a restoration tract when we first visited. When we came back she had read the restoration tract with her boyfriend and she prayed about it.  

She told us of a vision where she kept trying to leave church to go to a party and she couldnt find her way to the party. but the church kept being there. 

Her old path was suddenly Gone. 

But she woke up and talked with her boyfriend and when we talked with her she had come to the conclusion that the dream was from God to tell her this church is the true church! and she wants to join it. So she will start coming to church this sunday coming and get baptized once she gets married! Anyways that was most likely the Highlight! 

 

OH And if you remember  ME talking about Elder Jacobson.. The Friendly Giant. He is Elder Padilla's mother! o they are going to work miracles  here! 

 

Anyways i am happy all is well! Love you much! 

 

Denver is serving in trinidad! (Elder Ferrin Told me ) Shh ;) haha

anyways Love you 

 

Elder Pierson

Talk to Everyone!

Elder Pierson getting a haircut

The beach

Things here have been quite wonderful! There have been so many cool things happening! 

 

When we were working with the Ap's Elder Ferrin Came to Grenville with us. and one thing we really learned is actually to talk to EVERYONE. literaly Every single person we would pass by on the streets he would talk to and teach and schedule a return appointment so we actually have full days of appointments till next week monday... haha we are really trying to find time to teach and set appointments with everyone we contacted we had 49 contacts on the week. 

Its tough to keep all the people straight haha.. but we are working hard.. 

 

So i don't know if we will have a baptism before the transfer is over. we are working for it and there is only one possibility and that is "GA's" daughter, but she got nervous the last time and changed her mind so we will see what will happen. we haven't talked to her about it but we will see what she wants.  

 

Its Crazy to think it is "S's" year mark! i hope those missionaries there and the Debovilles are working with her to get to the temple! that has been her goal ever since she had a dream about one haha. she is great! 

 

it has been wonderfully fun being here! and i actually have no clue what is happening this transfer i just like to talk haha. i actually hope that i will stay for one more. i would really like to see someone join the church while i am here! but As they are ready and as we find them they will come! 

 

Teaching has been pretty great ! i really enjoy it! its has been kind of tough trying to add some new aspects to our teaching! but its going well! we had a wonderful lesson with someone named "KH" yesterday. we had brother James come with us! we actually met and taught her and her friends she brought by the Pasture (soccer field)  

 

This week was a lot of fun! 

OH OH wait i almost forgot to tell you about another wonderful person! we actually met her husband first. but he wasn't too interested in religion. "not his Vibes" but Before we taught him we met his wife but she had to take care of the kids so she couldn't come meet with us. anyways time goes by and then we ware walking in Grenville and we hear someone call to us and its her and she asked us to bring her a Bible (Book of Mormon). so we did ! and we taught her and she told us when we first came she felt basically the spirit tell her  to listen to us. and then in the street when she saw us again she said she really didn't even think to call out she just felt and overwhelming prompting to call and she called without even thinking about it! 

She told us she had been baptized before but after our lesson we invited he to be baptized. and she said yes. When we were closing i asked her is she had any question and she said "so if this message is true then all other churches baptisms don't count?" so she understood very well! i am excited to see her again! 

 

things are wonderful here!

thanks for all the support!! 

 

Love you!

Elder Pierson

A Wonderful Christmas

This has been a pretty wonderful christmas! the Ap's are actually here right now but we havent seen them yet! we are going to St.georges to play ping pong so we will see them today. 

And as for the Baptisms we hope that we will see them before the transfer ends but we will be working really hard with those people to help them achieve it! 

im not sure if i would spend longer in Grenada. 6 months is a long time for a missionary to be in one spot. but we will see! hopefully we get things done here! 

sunday was a little quite. we actually had 8 people at church including us! pretty drastic of a difference when compared to the 23 of 2 weeks ago!  but who knows whagwan! all should return to normal just now! 

OHH and hey Frozen was amazing! i am excited to watch that movie again! The snowman was hilarious!  

WE are really trying to find some more people! right now we are working with a lot of cool men! Future Priesthood! WHoo! 

things in GRenville are good right now! there is so much work to be done up here and we are just trying to keep up! 

Thanks for so much support! i feel the love everytime i read you emails! 

I love you very much! 

You Stripling warrior Elder Pierson

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

Teaching and Preparing the People of Grenada

The missionary world is absolutely fantastic! We learned so much at the Zone conference past, oh yes and Barbados was amazing! So flat it blew my mind. I've always had some sort of ridiculous mountain on my islands! 

But absolute highlight about Zone Conference was learning about how to teach about the contracts/ covenants we make and the investigator's will make. We have been asked to make sure every convert full fills the requirements found in D&C 20:37 . So we are working hard for that.

An interesting things we are studying and teaching now is the Why's of the Gospel. Or in other words the doctrines more purely. Which is actually really cool. I have been learning a lot by doing that. 

So its wonderful.  

Unfortunately we had no investigators come to church. first time since my first week in Grenada. It seems no one wants to come down to St Georges for church.. only to Grenville. but hey next week will be better!  

Some real highlights from teaching this week would be probably how many people we have been teaching and who are very prepared. we have at the moment 12 Baptismal Dates all in December! some are more solid and some are less but we will see some baptisms in December!  

We have actually set a zone Goal to baptise 22 this transfer! Which is amazing because there is only 4 sets of missionaries. I do believe that we will reach it if we are diligent and obedient. 

The church in St Georges actually has to knock down some walls and make the chapel bigger to accommodate all the people coming to church and in Grenville we are looking for a bigger building! 

I am guessing that this is where they hold church meetings.

It's absolutely amazing to think how much the Lord is Hastening his work!

All over the world is like this and its fantastic! 

But all is well in Grenada. I love it here and I cant wait to see Denver! (His friend Denver just got called to serve in the same mission as Jeff.) 

I talked to Michael, and him and James are going to be in a 4 man apartment just now. haha. That would be so ridiculously fun! (Michael and James are serving in Jamaica.) 

Anywho!

Love you so much!

Take care!

Love Elder Pierson

The beach

After Lydia (Jeff's niece) saw this picture, she was really upset with Uncle Jeff for stepping on a puppy. Turns out he was just giving the dog a belly scratch. (Dogs out there are pretty mangy so he didn't want to use his hands.)

Staying in Grenada

So this week was a really good week! 

 

we had a lot of cool things happen! 

 

actually first off let me tell you that i am staying in grenville again with Elder Padilla! at least one more transfer i will be here! then who knows! but we have some really awesome baptismal dates set for the Month! we have a lot of cool people we are working with! So its nice to be able to stick around to see them get baptized. 

 

This year this mission has set a goal of 600 baptisms for the year. usually we would get about 40 or 50 a month but the last two months we only got 20 or 30.. so we are way behind! this month we need just around 90 baptisms mission wide! this has kind of lit a fire under all of us! we are working harder than ever to reach that inspired goal! 

 

And so far grenada is preforming very well! President Mehr actually reffered to the grenadian missionaries as "the Dream Team" So we are not going to let him down! and as we work for and expect miracles the lord is providing! we have found the land of milk and honey! (many baptisms) a place called la fillette. we have met o lot of amazing people. Who we will go and teach just now! we have a bit of a short week coming as we are actually going to Barbados for Friday and Saturday for a zone conference!  

 

So its going to be awesome! me and Elder Padilla are working really well! we have been fine tuning our teaching finding out what works best ! and its going really well!

Sifting a lot of people to see who are prepared celestial beings! 

 

So many fun Things 

Absolutly no one from Grenada is getting moved this transfer! so we are working well! 

 

we have more baptismal dates in the children of "GN". She actually asked how old someone had to be to get baptized and both her children are 9 or 11 soooo they both want to be baptized as well! it is going to be awesome!. 

 

so sunday at church was rally cool as well!

We had 21 people there! we are almost too big for our building! actually if we wouldnt have put two chairs to the front for the Group leader we wouldnt have fit. Not to mention one usual family of 3 went to st georges this sunday. we almost didnt fit! so we are currently searching for a bigger building! :) 

 

Gotta Love Progress!

God is active so much here in the west indies! i am so blessed to be a part of the growth he is blessing this land with!

Keep being awesome!

 

Anyways!

Love you much!

Elder Pierson

Four New Baptismal Dates!

Well let me just say i have been having a most fantastic week!

So much wonderfulness has been happening! 

 

There was recently a baptism in St georges that i was able to go to! and it was nice! 

 

We  have been having a lot of fun and success! this week we set 4 more baptismal dates!  

 

One girl named "RL" is awesome! she is trying to figure out which religion is right! when we first contacted her actually her exact words when i asked her if she had ever had any questions were " why are we here, and where do we go when we die?" now she has felt the spirit while praying and when we read a chapter from the Book of Mormon. She described it as Peace! i love that! peace! the feelings of the spirit are amazing!  

she came to church with a friend we had taught once before and also her younger cousin! so it was Great!  

 

at church this Sunday we had 17 people! The bus is working Good, this Sunday there were only the usual dedicated members on the bus, but they love it! next Sunday we might overflow the building! :) 

 

Another Lady named "CN" is awesome! she has two kids and wants to make a lot of changes in her life to help out her kids! she wants to get baptized and asked us if we would be disappointed that even tho we are teaching her if she got baptized in another church. We took that opportunity to explain the priesthood very directly! letting her know we would be because it would mean she didnt understand our message. That the Priesthood is only in this church!

She took that and really pondered on it and took some sincere deep interest in finding out That Joseph Smith was a Prophet. She unfortunately didnt come to church for her child was sick with the Flu. 

 

Sunday was an interesting day for me tho! we had 2 lessons planned and both fell through, so we went finding! and we actually met a lot of awesome People! one police man who is interested  in learning more! also a lady named "GL"! we met her, while looking for a lady named "DA". Anyways we had actually contacted her mom a while (2 months ) ago and never gone to visit her cause we didnt know where she lived! but we made it there. they were sitting on their porch and i was going to go right by but both me and Elder Padilla kinda just felt we needed to talk to them! so we did! and that lesson we set her a date for december 20th. she has actually been to church 2 times down in Grand Anse but didnt know that was the church we represented and didnt know there was one in Grenville! but she is excited! she really wants to know which church is true! 

 

So we has a lot of fun!

The work is progressing! me and Elder Padilla are working hard on our obedience so we can see more miracles!

All is well in Zion over here!  

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

Training is fun!

So yeah its warm in grenada! i guess the snow is scared of us here! haha 

Well let me see! many cool things have happened in the missionary life! This week i got to see Elder Bingham Be a district leader and teach the district meeting and it was wonderful! 

Me and Elder bingham decided we would have had a blast is we were in the same highschool growing up haha.... 

 

lets see um well we met some really cool people! while finding one day we met a guy named "JY". "JY" is a cool pretty nice guy who apparently likes to read, we contacted him and went straight into a lesson and gave him a book of mormon, he wanted us to come back the next day and when we arrived he said he didnt read enough to get a full picture. so asking how much he read he told us The first chapter of nephi, so we looked at where he showed us  and he had read all of first nephi and was ready to dive into it again! Plus he lives like 3 houses from the church. He might be hard to meet with again because he works in st georges and is all  over the place but we will se him and it will be awesome! 

best quote from him i would say is when we invited him to be baptized if he knew it was true. "Well if i knew it was true i cant run from God, Jonah tried that it doesnt work, so of course i would" 

 

We are really trying to get a lot more people to teach! its kind of hard when we dont get to go out in the mornings at all But we have a lot of teaching appointments all throughout the days! 

 

Oh  and another cool experiance is when we were trying to find someone we were supposed to teach we were slowly passing some houses trying to see if anyone was home and all i heard from a house we passed was "are those Latter days Saints?!" so i turned around and it was a lady from the states who was supper excited to see us here, she isnt a member but she thinks she wants to be. She is from maryland and is just going home, But she watched 17 miracles and loved it. so we gave her a book of mormon for her to take home! it was great! 

 

Training is fun! hard sometimes but he is  basically already trained, he would go out with missionaries for like 3-4 hours everyday to prepare for his  mission.. now  he 's  just gotta switch those skills into english! :) he is great! 

 

yes actually we did get a new sr couple.

They are the monks!  Sister Monks reminds me of Linda osmond. 

They are really old but awesome!

But i Love you much!

Love Elder Pierson

New companion

boy oh boy do i have some interesting things to tell you!

SOoo Let me first begin by kind of apologizing that i never told you but i havent really been able to hear out of my right ear for the past month and a half ish. So Elder Smith Sr being the doctor and all looked at it for me a couple weeks ago. He thought something was wrong with my ear drum, but managed to get me some ear drops that should help, now Me and Elder Leany were driving around St Georges most of Wednesday kind of waiting for our companions to arrive. So me still short of hearing asked elder Smith to look at it again. We got to his apartment after we picked up elder smith and Elder Padilla. And he looked at it again and pulled out some make shift tool made from a Wd 40 straw and a syringe . and flushed out my ear. (dont tell dad that works)( he might try to make one). I can hear now i am healed. So started off the week great! 

 

Then me and elder Padilla went out to work when we got back! and boy oh boy do i like working with Elder Padilla, He is a little bit quiet  in the lessons unless i tell him when he should speak, But he has absolutly no fear in contacting. He sees someone and just goes! Its awesome! he is a wonderful guy. He learned english in school before but is working on perfecting his grammer! so just now he will have it perfect! 

 

Now  we had a great week, met a members long distant cousin named "C". and taught her once, she is looking for a church.   so it should be great! she actually came this Sunday.

"KA"s bus isn't fixed but she is really progressing. she talked about how she wants to make a lot of changes and she is starting to really think about what her next step is. 

 

Ok now the story about church... Buckle up its a great one.

Ok so Sunday morning Me and Elder Padilla,Look around and see we have no bread, so thats no big usually, Bro odebenu brings it.

Now, This particular sabbath we had some weird torrential downpour going on, 

(another Tropical Wave) 

So brother james got there before it hit and he walked with our investigator "MH". And then Came the rain and after that only people with cars showed up again. But Brother Odebenu didnt show up till 15 mins after 10. so sacrament started late. And the sacrament table was all set up.   So we started promptly after his arrival. When sacrament rolled around it was me and elder padilla who were blessing the sacrament. When we lifted the cloth to our surprise there was no bread. So we quietly exited the building and ran downstairs and grabbed whatever we had that could potentially be used for sacrament. All we had was spicy Nacho Tortilla Chips....  So we had For Remembrance of the body of Christ Spicy Nacho Tortilla chips. Must say it was a stressful sunday but it all worked out. Weird experience also. 

 

but all is well.

Teaching is well!

Elder Padilla is going to be a fantastic missionary! he is a boss! 

Elder Aukusitino emailed me and said that he saw i begat another son haha so im happy to hear he is flourishing in his English skills! 

 

Thanks for everything you do for me! i love you so much! 

 

Love Elder pierson