Week 53  (11/25/19) Transfers and New Companion !!! 😊

Hey Family!!

Well 1 year has flown by. This past week was good. We had transfers and I will be staying in the same area, as a senior companion, yee hoo!! Her name is Sister Shock. She is from the United States. She has been out for three transfers plus the CTM. I’m looking forward to meeting her sometime today.

Yesterday we had some Americans visiting and it was super cool. I had a chance to translate a little bit.  It was nice to meet Brother Morris and his family, he served his mission in the same area over 16 years ago.

Here are some pictures I took this last week. As you can tell, Christmas is very much celebrated here and the local mall and businesses are decorated beautifully. I look forward to talking to you next week.

Love you lots & stay warm !!

Sister Pierce

Week 52  (11/18/19) In 2 more Days, It will be 1 Year!!! 😊

Hey Family & Friends !!

Well here we are in week 6 of the transfer, time has flown by! This Saturday we will find out about transfers, Im not sure what will happen, but looking forward to it!

Also, this week will mark......1 YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It feels just like yesterday that I was starting my mission. I didn't understand anything, eating strange foods & rice and beans EVERY DAY!! This has been the most hardest, challenging, physically demanding, sometimes spiritually demanding but most rewarding opportunity I have ever had with an outpouring of blessings everyday.

I have come to learn that God is very much aware of us. He knows what is best for us, and what he asks of us is to search for him in everything. Are we doing the small and simple things? Are we still looking to develop faith in Him? Repenting everyday? Going to church every Sunday? Attending the Temple frequently? Being honest in all that we do? Do we seek for opportunities to share the gospel with others? These are the things that he will judge us for, so being prepared is so very important. 

This weekend we had Stake Conference. They spoke a lot about service which I loved. This evening we have family night planned with an amazing family. The mom is super Incredible and very generous to all that she meets. She makes and sells A LOT of cleaning products. A long time ago the missionaries were visiting her, but I don't know why they stopped. Tonight they are going to make dinner for us, I am so excited, more about it next week :-)

Super funny story that happened to us yesterday after lunch. As we were walking along, one of the missionaries said that she knew where there was a mango tree. I said "Perfect" lets go!! We went there, an well..... the mango's were pretty high up in the tree. So what do "4" Sister Missionaries do in dresses without brooms? We all took off our shoes and threw them up at the tree to knock off some mango's. After 15 minutes of us trying to knock them off, we only managed to get "1" mango off the tree. 

Apparently we were being watched by some people across the street. A man comes over to us and asks "Are you hungry? Is that why you are trying to get the mango's? We giggled and said "No, we are not hungry...we just ate lunch and wanted a delicious mango for desert"  So, next thing I saw was him taking his shoe off and he hit the mango's the first! second! and third! time he tried. We thanked him again for helping us as we each walked away with a mango to eat. It was so funny, I wish you could have been there:-)

My time is up, I look forward to next week. Please keep praying for missionary work. 

Love you, 

Sister Pierce

Week 51  (11/11/19) Happy Veterans Day & Lots of Rain!!! 😊

Hey Ya’ll!!

Happy Veterans Day. Hope all is well for you, and you are able to recognize the freedoms we have in our country. 

This past week was pretty good. hummmmmm.... as usual it was super hot! and because of that, I think the entire population of Riberiao Preto was praying for rain, and as we know, God answers our prayers. So was I said that maybe He said " Fine,  you want rain?! I’ll show you rain!!!!" HAHAHHAAHHA Because it rained A LOT!!! 

My clothes were soaked and I had a plastic sack on my head. The other sisters called and asked if we had shut the windows, which we hadn’t. But we received this phone call inside the store shopping so we gear up with LOTS of sacks and walked to our house. As we were walking we saw some people who were stuck, basically in a river, with their car, so we helped pushed them out. It was super crazy!!

I think that was the craziest thing that happened this week. Things are still going well with Sister Almeida, and the Lord blessed us with a family who are married legally, and went to church yesterday!

Miracles are real!

Here are some pictures of me holding a possum that was comfortable with me. And a vulture that was being taken care of by members. Me with the plastic sack on my head and soaked socks. Lunch with members and a Pizza Hut!Yum!

Love you all :) 

from Brasil, 

Sister Pierce

Week 50  (11/4/19) Baptism & Time for God 😊

HEEEEYYYYYYYY FAMILY!!!

Well these past few weeks have been good. Its still SUPER hot here, so hot that I usually take 3 showers every day LOL! Our ward is pretty big. We had a baptism here a little while back, her name is Helena, but pronounced Elena, because they don't use the letter H like we have. 

Here a while back, I had the privilege of going to institute with someone we are teaching, and I have never loved institute more, because when I was at home, I drug my feet, but now I am super excited when I return home to go. Anywho, he gave a lesson on suffering, and how we don't have to suffer forever. We pass through trials in our lives to help us learn and grow. 

Something that was interesting was how our tempo(time) to God is nothing to us, for example:

• 1 day for God, 1000 years for us
• 2 hours to God is 85 years for us
• 27.1 min to God is 19 years for us
• 22.8 min to God is 16 years for us
• 2.85 min to God is 2 years for us
• 1.07 min to God is 9 months for us

I feel like with this information that we need to use our time with wisdom, because truly we don't know when Jesus Christ will return or when our time here on earth will be over, and so we need to do the small and simple things, read, pray, repent EVERY DAY go to church, and strengthen our testimonies. These are just some some small things, and every time we bear our testimony it grows. Never miss an opportunity to share your testimony with someone else, because as I had some experiences this past week God ALWAYS answers our prayers, sometimes its through another person, so we could be that answer.

I love you all, thank you SOOO Much for your love and support. 

Have an amazing week and go to the Temple.

With love from Brasil,
Sister Pierce