I'm Expecting!

                                                                  Last Sunday together
                                                                  with Elder Lailson Silva
5/25/2015

I'm gonna have a son! Transfers came out this week and I will train a new missionary! Yea! that's pretty exciting. When you are the trainer you are called the dad and your trainee is your son, haha. It was very funny to see the reactions of some people when they ask "whose the new missionary coming?" and I say "my son" or when I tell people that I'm pregnant, hahaha. 

Elder Lailson Silva will go to Cruz Alta, he's a bit sad to be leaving but he's excited to be able to meet another area. It really was a great experience to serve with him and he will sure be missed. Tuesday I go back to Santa Maria to sleep there the night. Then Wednesday morning we get our new companions, get some training from Pres. Parrela and then head back here to Livramento. (12 hours of bus ride in 2 days ugghh)

Sorry for the short email the computer froze various times and I'm out of time Love you all!!

Elder Pierce (papai (dad) hehehe)

                                                             More exchanges:

The Spirit Rocks!

Me during district meeting giving my treinamento about planning
(my comp was a ninja photographer, haha)

5/18/2015

I had a pretty good week. I participated in 2 exchanges, one that I did with Elder Banks from DC in my District and one that was done with me with Elder Edwards from Michigan one of our Zone Leaders. Haha it just kind of worked out that all the Americans did the exchanges together. This week I have another exchange with the other companionship and I'll be with Elder Chuman from Santos, SP who arrived in the mission field with me one year and 3 months ago (wow). And besides having to run around from one area to the other in my area, Elder Lailson Silva and I were even able to find 7 new investigators who we were really needing so that was great. 

Noite Familiar (family home evening) 

I wanted to share with y'all two experiences that we had with the spirit this week. First off, we had a lesson with Thais and Júlio one night, I think it was Friday. They and their family (seen in the picture of the noite familiar just missing one other daughter) have been really liking our visits and how they have felt at church. They often express how they like we aren't "fanatics" and that they are surprised to find themselves in the situation where they are choosing to go to church and follow Gods plan for them of their free will haha. But a little hold up is that they have no background of saying daily prayers or prayers in general for that matter so they have real troubles remembering to pray and ask God if our message is true. As we were talking about that and trying to help them see the importance of prayer and thinking of how they could remember or feel more comfortable praying the spirit came into the room really strong. It doesn't happen too often when I feel that literally the words that I say aren't my own but I myself was surprised as I testified that as we pray we are literally talking with God our Heavenly Father and he will in a very real way answer our prayers. And every day after that Thais has said her prayers at night and is very excited to know how she will receive her answer. (She is trying to help out Júlio who comes home very tired and has the habit of just falling asleep haha).

The other experience was on Sunday the Bishop finally had me sing a special musical number in sacrament meeting (demorou (took long enough)). So I sang "I know that my redeemer lives" (Eu se i que vive meu senhor) and this time felt different. Because I've sang this song in Portuguese enough now I pretty much have it memorized which gave me the opportunity to really express through the music how I feel about the lyrics. I have decided that one of my favorite things to do in the world is share my testimony through singing. As I saw the tears well up in about half the congregation I knew that each of us are given gifts and talents so that we can edify the kingdom of God. So that was probably the most spiritual time that I sang in a sacrament meeting until now. Cool stuff :)

Love you all! until next week

Elder Pierce

My first exchange as a District Leader with Elder Banks from DC

Happy :)

                                                         Birthday Lunch- Churrasco, yummm!
5/11/2015
Well I can only describe how I felt after the family Skype session as happy. I can tell that the family will be very different when I come home, deeper voices and a good bit taller but I think its exciting to see the before and after results. I pretty much said everything that I had to say yesterday... so I'm thinking about what I'm going to write now... 

Umm, just a recap for other folks, I'm liking a lot getting to be District Leader working on my treinamentos (training lessons) and helping the other elders out, even if I feel like they teach me more than I teach them sometimes, haha. It's super cool to be here on the border and I'll have to brush up on some Spanish to talk with the missionaries in the other mission (Uruguay Montevideo West I think) who we get to see on p'day. 

I sent pictures from my birthday lunch last week, the churrasco was super good.

 And look at my car that I got as a present, haha (we woke up one morning and bam! a bumble-bee style Camaro was outside our window so we had to take pictures)

I also have the opportunity to cook a bit here, so obviously we had to take pictures. Our chicken and pasta with rice wasnt too bad for a first try. 

This week I will be doing my first exchanges as District leader and another exchange with the Zone leaders so I hope we can actually get some work done in the midst of all the switching but it should be fun. So yea sorry for the short email but that's pretty much it, have a great week and ending up the school year and stuff!

Love your missionary 

Elder Pierce

It's my Birthday!!!

                                            BRAZIL                                                               URUGUAY
                                                       (Me in two countries at the same time!!!!)
5/4/2015

I'm 21 now!

My last birthday here in Brasil! 21 years old, that sounds older than I feel. It's weird to think that I spent the entire time that I was 20 in Brasil and feels very distant that I will turn 22 back in the US. All the elders of our zone will go to a buffet restaurant with churrasco to celebrate for my birthday lunch so that will be fun, pictures to come next week.

I'll probably buy some gaúcho stuff later today (which is super cheap here on the frontier!) but I got myself a little present earlier, drum roll... new Ecco shoes! Some of you might question how did I get a hold of new Eccos in a country that doesn't even have them. So my last week in São Pedro I went on an exchange and spent the day in Urlandia. In casual conversation my shoe size came up and the other elder said that he had a pair of shoes for sale. I thought yea whatever but I asked anyway what brand they were and he said "Eccos" so my ears perked up and I asked him to show me the shoes. The story is that the elder that baptized him (3 or 4 years ago) sent him a package with a bunch of stuff including this pair of shoes. He realized that the shoes were actually too small for him so he only used them 2 or 3 times. And they fit me just great so I worked a deal for the equivalent of less than $30 (US) which I felt was a pretty sweet early birthday deal :) 

                                                              A birthday present- new Eccos!

                                                                       Joy!
I'm liking a lot serving here on the border. It's super cool to find people who speak Spanish everywhere, and if they speak slowly I can even understand the general of what they are saying. I remembered about my passion for Marvel movies when a member told us he was going to the midnight premiere of the Avengers 2, sacrifices of the mission!! but it'll all be good, haha. I'm super excited to skype for Mothers Day and I'll see you all (family) soon!!! Be thinking about questions to ask and Ill think about the answers. I'm excited also to give my first treinamento (training thing) and lead my first District meeting as district leader tomorrow. I will talk about the process of repentance in the preparation for baptism. 

Elders Lailson Silva and Pierce

YEA love you all! eat some cake for me! 

the 1 year older and a little bit wiser too - Elder Pierce

At the border with Elders Lailson Silva and Chuman

                                                                    Brazil seal thing

                                                                      Uruguay seal thing

                                                   some plaque that explains something

                                                                           Our Zone