tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40404757241511349412024-03-05T12:12:16.784-08:00Among the GaúchosI have decided to serve a mission for my church - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have been called to serve in the Brazil, Santa Maria Mission, and I am so excited to serve the Lord and the people of Brazil! This blog will contain letters and pictures from my mission. Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-36456498440592061352015-12-07T16:34:00.000-08:002015-12-07T16:34:11.135-08:00Well this is it!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b> Baptism Day Happiness</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>12/7/2015</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Well family this will be the last week of my mission! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Let me explain a bit better how this will all happen: Sunday after stake conference here in Santo Ângelo I will take a bus to Santa Maria 4:15, arrival time 8:20. We will stay at the traditional Hotel Appel that the mission constantly uses with all of the other missionaries who are finishing their missions, there are about 22 I think in my group. Then on Monday it really isn't a "P-day" because there is a whole schedule that we go through with a self-reliance course, last interviews with Presidente Parrela, a final testimony meeting and to top it all off dinner at the best churrascaria (shoo-hask-areea)(Brasilian stake house) in Santa Maria, Bovinos! And because we wont be able to sleep anyway we head off to the airport in Santa Maria 3:20 am on Tuesday (the 5 other Americans from my group and I at least). Then starts all of the flights: First from Santa Maria to Porto Alegre. In Porto Alegre we will have the amazing opportunity to go to the temple! (this is why we leave so early in the morning). After the temple trip its back to the airport and we fly to São Paulo. Then from São Paulo it's a 10 hour flight straight back to the USA baby! (where for sure Ill have a temperature shock since its been super hot down here getting ready for the peak of summer in January). And after a 3 hour wait in the Atlanta airport I will arrive in Greensboro 9:21am!!! (I don't know why that time is so specific...why not just 9:20 or 9:30... whatever) <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_PPBA3KIF6pSaGX7HAHCtuEWU3nL5kk_h13u9WyeuqagUHCy7GacoK196GtGVS6ovcVySRGkQ-PVXqmbaZCG5oBhVQw62tYSc9CjHBpCgB_tlh_JAXlKDDNagEL-ybzr4B0XbA7Jaljvq/s1600/IMG_2551.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_PPBA3KIF6pSaGX7HAHCtuEWU3nL5kk_h13u9WyeuqagUHCy7GacoK196GtGVS6ovcVySRGkQ-PVXqmbaZCG5oBhVQw62tYSc9CjHBpCgB_tlh_JAXlKDDNagEL-ybzr4B0XbA7Jaljvq/s320/IMG_2551.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">district meeting selfie</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">This past week was amazing :) Here are some funny things that happened. On Tuesday morning before our district meeting we got a call from Presidente Parrela. He called personally so that there weren't any misunderstandings and he said "Elder Pierce you are now junior, the leadership of your area and of the zone will now be passed to your companion Elder Souza Santos. Elder, now is the time for you to focus your thoughts and studies on your goals and plans for your return home. But remember no one in this mission dies". That pretty much changed nothing that we do but it was still funny to tell everyone that I was junior haha. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Soaking wet before 6:30am</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">my flooded shoes</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Another funnyish story: Friday Elder Souza Santos needed to go to the dentist to get a possible cavity checked out, but how the "free" health care system works here in Brasil we had to get there super early to mark an appointment for this next week. So there we were 5:30 am in the street and the thunder begins to roll and by 6:00 I was in the middle of the 2nd biggest rain storm that I've ever seen on my mission. So we were running and screaming in the streets back home "AHH!!! Holy Cow! Como Assim?! 'ta vendo essa chuva tchê?!!" (how is this possible? are you seeing this rain, man?!) and now I can say that I've been soaked from my head to my toes before it was even time to wake up in the morning. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">We also worked super close with the family of Irmão Pedro this week and we had a great Noite Familiar (Family Home Evening) with another family who they are friends with from the ward. The message was about the blessings that we receive in our lives from obedience to the commandments, especially baptism, which went well. The game we played was hilarious where you had to unwrap a candy with socks on your hands using spoons and do that as many times before someone else in the circle rolled a 6 on the dice when they will have give the socks and spoons to the next person to try and eat as many of the candies that they could unwrap. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">noite familiar with the entire family</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> The candy game.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana;">Saturday was the big day! after about 4 months of visiting their family and 11 straight weeks of them visiting the church Pedro, Janice his wife, and 2 of his daughters Carol and Kauane were baptized! It has been a long process and its only the beginning but the baptismal service was super spiritual and totally worth it. It's been 2 weeks that Pedro hasn't smoked and now they were ready to take this step in their lives :) I had the honor and privilege to baptize Pedro, Irmão Carlos 2nd from the right baptized Janice, Irmão Gelson on the far right baptized Carol, who is next to me, and Kauane chose Elder Souza Santos to baptize her :) And it was funny because we thought the water in the font wouldn't heat up fast enough but when I stepped into the water first the water was super hot! So that will be the memorable part haha because everything worked out great and everyone was so happy :) (I think you can tell from all of the smiley faces haha) <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All in white :)</td></tr>
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</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">And since this was my last sacrament meeting in the ward (due to stake conference this weekend) the ward choir that I've been working with for a while performed the last hymn of the meeting, the Christmas hymn "Away In A Manger" which turned out great. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana;"> Ward Choir</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">And that's it... haha its weird to know that this will be my last email to you all. We planned many things too help this week go by fast and I'm sure it will be a blast. I cant wait to see you all in just a few days (pretty much)!!! I know this time that I have been serving the Lord have been the best two years, until now (as it says in that returned missionary manual Mantenha O Espírito). The time that I have most served others and in doing so served myself. Of all the experiences that I have had for these past 2 years what I most value is the testimony that I now have of the small and simple things of the gospel. Now I know with a different certainty and a new depth that the gospel blesses families. That the church was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. That we have a living prophet today. And above all to know through faith that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ lives and loves us.</span></span><br />
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With all of my love and gratitude!!</div>
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Elder Pierce <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;"><br />This picture is perfect haha everyone gives us this nick name and you can see why above<br /> "beans and rice" hahahahahaha<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></td></tr>
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Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-79266342405502480992015-11-30T14:13:00.000-08:002015-11-30T14:14:11.321-08:00Holdin' Down the Fort<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><b> Noite Familiar</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><b>11/30/2015</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Family... things are coming down very quickly... on the mission
you get used to the rhythm, and next week and next week, but then I get to...
next week... wow it’s a lot to think about. And we pretty much don’t have time
to think about it really haha. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zone Meeting</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">This week we had our zone meeting on Tuesday and we went right
into the exchanges afterwards which turned out to be much more tiring than I
expected. We did 4 exchanges in a row! Tuesday I was with Elder De Melo, the
district leader from Santa Rosa while Elder Souza Santos went to Santa Rosa
with the other companion. For the first day of exchanges I was well prepared
all of our appointments were marked "tudo certinho" (all right) and
we were able to teach some great lessons with members and in all it was good. The
next day was my exchange with the traveling assistant Elder Molina (and Elder
Souza Santos had to travel from Santa Rosa to Santa Maria, about 5 hours, and
got there around midnight the night before). We are both heading home here in a
few days so it was more trunky talk than normal but even on the second day of
exchanges I was able to have everything marked and all of our visits
"bonitinho" (nice? more literally would be beautiful with a diminutive...).
We had a Noite Familiar with a family of members and the family of Irmão Pedro
which was good and Elder Molina gave a 10 for the integration work that we were
doing with them. (but sadly I forgot my camera!) But then on Thursday things
got more complicated. I was on exchanges with Elder Araújo, our district leader
here in Santo Ângelo, after Elder Souza Santos came back from Santa Maria in
the morning but since this was the 3rd day in a row of exchanges I wasn’t able
to get everything planned out super well and to top it all off it began to
rain... so that was a bit of a challenging day. Friday Elder Araújo needed to
do an exchange with Elder Souza Santos (the DL has to do exchanges with both
the ZL...) so I was with Elder Campos for the day. I think by this point the
Lord helped me out because he knew that things were gettin crazy so he blessed
us with some great contacts which turned into lessons and new investigators.
But yea I’m just glad that all of those exchanges are over and I’ll never have
to do another exchange for the rest of my mission! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">I was very happy on Saturday to be able to go back to working with
Elder Souza Santos. I know that the Lord really has a purpose for putting us
back together again especially now. As I helped my other companions in their
final hours now he is helping me. No other missionary would be able to help me
have such faith and confidence in Heavenly Father and to work through the
spirit til the end, not giving into fear or just pushing it with the "arm
of flesh" as he has helped me. So yea I’m super excited to get everything
done these last 2 weeks!! </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Love ya family and just a reminder next week is the last week I’ll
be getting email from you for the rest of my mission!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Elder Pierce <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p> <b> Exchange Extravaganza</b></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghWECgcXqG4qNGFtkZrBJZut96hrrjgdKpyuF_7TQeLa6mr2qCVTL-qlna_BN6Az5tF8ukr2TDUh1caTbiVFFDUPdY0i1oUKKW0LxO0cuR2oat4JfE2eLyBcSCOKBSEjknyU-sVGChYmxw/s1600/IMG_2519.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghWECgcXqG4qNGFtkZrBJZut96hrrjgdKpyuF_7TQeLa6mr2qCVTL-qlna_BN6Az5tF8ukr2TDUh1caTbiVFFDUPdY0i1oUKKW0LxO0cuR2oat4JfE2eLyBcSCOKBSEjknyU-sVGChYmxw/s400/IMG_2519.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
Elder Melo<br />
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Elder Molina<br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Elder Araújo</span><br />
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<o:p> Elder Campos</o:p></div>
Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-91869756675469604372015-11-23T13:54:00.000-08:002015-11-23T13:54:39.743-08:00My Last "Mirth-day"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b> Zone Meeting</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>11/23/2015</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Well this week marked my last "mirth-day" here on the mission. (Mirth-day is the best translation I can think of for "mes-versario" in Portuguese which means your "birth-day" of the month) Yup on Sunday marked 1 year and 10 months that I've been here in Brazil, but the weirdest part is... I'm not going to be here for 1 year and 11 months, uhggg shivers. I also got the official email of death today saying that I'm going home and when my flights will be and everything pretty crazy. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtR9NCgVF9huiSVeVlxzW3TsCf-KzCuXSCFSdAH8DH6DIioLkCsL8dMxDzh_VxTic7KeNLoKbruIOMJeEqNTqj-Qt1sjwLmLxApWPeiutQge2kboFp76bP5QTkQjRAVERDAXtHrafFkYY0/s1600/IMG_2510.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtR9NCgVF9huiSVeVlxzW3TsCf-KzCuXSCFSdAH8DH6DIioLkCsL8dMxDzh_VxTic7KeNLoKbruIOMJeEqNTqj-Qt1sjwLmLxApWPeiutQge2kboFp76bP5QTkQjRAVERDAXtHrafFkYY0/s400/IMG_2510.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">Elder </span>Wassom and I </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Things went by very fast this week. With our travels on Monday to Santiago then the Zone Meeting Tuesday morning which went well and then traveling back to Santo Ângelo literally the rest of the day. Then Wednesday my exchange with Elder Wassom the other lyric singer in the mission (I'm sure the entire building and the building next to ours heard us singing...) Pretty much all of the things I had planned for in the exchange fell through, tears, but we kept it up, haha. Exchanges are always a good test of faith, or with miracles or in everything going wrong. Then Thursday Elder Souza Santos finally got to come home. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">We are working a lot so that these last weeks will be very fruitful, we are expecting great things with Irmão Pedro and his family and they are excited too. We had a cool lesson with them where as we read scriptures about the gospel of Christ they filled up a plastic cup with water and then when we finished we used a lighter and showed how a plastic cup without water burns easily but with water in the cup the plastic doesn't burn at all and in the same way we need the gospel in our lives, pretty cool. This week will be busier than last, haha. Tuesday we have the Zone meeting here in Santo Ângelo with Santa Rosa and I'll stay here in the city with the district leader from Santa Rosa for our exchange then on Wednesday Elder Souza Santos from Santa Rosa will go to Santa Maria and an assistant will come and do an exchange with me then when he leaves on Thursday and Elder Souza Santos comes back we will have to do another exchange with Elder Araújo, the district leader here in Santo Ângelo and that is pretty much our entire week in exchanges... yay!</span><br />
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So yea have a great Thanksgiving! and I love you all </div>
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Elder Pierce </div>
Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-61673162724419487522015-11-16T14:19:00.004-08:002015-11-16T14:19:59.157-08:00Best (and Last) Mission Council Ever!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span>Presidente<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> and Sister </span>Parrela<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> Brazil, Santa Maria Mission</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>11/16/2015</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">After a long bus ride last Monday I finally got to my hotel room around 9:40 where I met up with my new/ old companion Elder Souza Santos! It was great to get to catch up with him and share many new stories and remember the good old days. At the mission council the next day I took a picture with Presidente and Sister Parrela for, surprisingly, the first time on my mission. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">The mission council was the best (and last) that I've participated in. The ideas were all sorted and filtered out really well and we only discussed things that would effect the entire mission (instead of wasting a lot of time on little stuff). We discussed two of my ideas 1) to include the "datas marcadas" (marked dates? if that's the right expression in English) (explanation: when a missionary marks a date for an investigator to be baptized) in the mission wide email, the "Santa Maria News" as an incentive for marking more dates and for the entire mission to have a better vision of how we are progressing. Everyone thought that was cool and it got a unanimous vote to be applied immediately. And 2) to send a copy of the teaching record together with the baptismal sheet to the mission office when an investigator is baptized. This idea sparked so much conversation and revisions etc that Presidente Parrela decided to have everyone think about it a bit more and we would continue to discuss the topic next mission council (obviously when I'm not going to be there...) It seems that no one has thought of that before so that was pretty cool :) <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2d0s7nNHSbHWr8fJez2U9Z3HVhUMwur0mr42q5oeALJeddag6ELcNmYe_fHRPU0U604cWGp3S00oKQare_565io1sixyAtBGN862lhjTZMqVVBTThIUil1Mg5dDnL8qPQ_reAuMpU3Q_G/s1600/IMG_2504.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2d0s7nNHSbHWr8fJez2U9Z3HVhUMwur0mr42q5oeALJeddag6ELcNmYe_fHRPU0U604cWGp3S00oKQare_565io1sixyAtBGN862lhjTZMqVVBTThIUil1Mg5dDnL8qPQ_reAuMpU3Q_G/s400/IMG_2504.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Together again :)</td></tr>
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Anyway Elder Souza Santos and I are working hard here towards the end. We had some crucial progress with some investigators like Irmão Pedro didn't smoke two days straight so far! But on the other end some other investigators that I've been really trying hard with have showed to us that it really just isn't their time now to progress. In the midst of it all it's like we have time... but at the same time we don't, haha. Especially because now we are going to have to prepare for another round of zone meetings and exchanges with the district leaders. Today (Monday) we travel to Santiago 3:00pm and from there on it's a roller coaster that I'll have to tell y'all about next week!</span><br />
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Love you all and have a great week!</div>
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Elder Pierce</div>
Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-58245876960883641252015-11-09T18:26:00.000-08:002015-11-09T18:26:18.942-08:00Day of the Dead and The Book Of Death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b> The "Book of Death" aka "Mantenha o Espírito" (maintain the spirit)</b><br />
<b>11/3/2015</b><br />
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So first off a big apology for the scare in not sending email yesterday. I realized in the middle of the week that I didn't advise you all that this week p-day moved to Tuesday because Monday was "Dia dos Finados" (Day of the Dead) here in Brasil. This is their substitute for Halloween even though we did go to visit some recent converts who were heading out to trick-or-treat (they were the only ones in the streets haha) so we helped them make their costumes which turned out... haha yea just look at the pics.<br />
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It's a big tradition for everyone to go to the cemetery and light candles to brighten the path of their loved ones (apostasy...) and leave flowers etc. So what all the missionaries did, I think in all of Brasil, was go to the cemeteries and pretty much just walk around talking to people visiting the graves about the plan of salvation, and offering for them to learn more etc. To be honest this is a great idea but a bit difficult in reality because first off everyone who goes to the cemetery usually is extremly religious (this may have to do with the fact that we were in a cemetery behined a huge Catholic church) and second we aren't the only church with this idea so there were many other religions roaming through the tombs and with big tables etc set up. Anyway we tried our best but what we most got were adresses of people that lived in the areas of the other missionaries so we can't even visit them, haha.<br />
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Last Monday I got the "Book of Death" in the mail! It is a book for returned missionaries that Presidente Parrela gives to all the missionaries who are finishing up their missions to help us out in coming back to the "real world" and due to the "trunky" nature of the book I call it the book of death, haha. The book is called "Mantenha o Espírito" (maintain the spirit) and was written by a past São Paulo CTM president. The entire idea of the book is to help us keep that same spirit that we have worked so hard to develop for the past 2 years as we come home. There are a ton of great tips and ideas to apply in real life from planning your morning well to reading the scriptures to weekly planning to making promises with yourself and the Lord and even making you own "white bible" (the missionary handbook is refered to as the "white bible") for returned missionary life. Super cool, I´ll be finishing reading it for the first time probably today and for these next 6 weeks I'll go back slowly making my own manual and planning on how to apply all of the good stuff that it teaches.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU7nPuIHQS6rpLe64pYkpQOwxeldwGy5kgNM41RyokryAf9B06mvxFpI4St95pyiCeJe8EjE5SYI68CSs6Adxx3f4Bz2KgDH-kE2P6YELr7LoTP5P6ingDi3rXOUhuLr2KZKK8sq5NC4gK/s1600/IMG_2403.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU7nPuIHQS6rpLe64pYkpQOwxeldwGy5kgNM41RyokryAf9B06mvxFpI4St95pyiCeJe8EjE5SYI68CSs6Adxx3f4Bz2KgDH-kE2P6YELr7LoTP5P6ingDi3rXOUhuLr2KZKK8sq5NC4gK/s400/IMG_2403.JPG" width="400" /></a>Anyway today is the last p-day of Elder Longo and his last week in the mission! Pretty crazy, we have big hopes and bigger faith that we are gonna see some fruits of our labors this weekend and some extra blessings for a mission well done here. Last night we had a family home evening with a family of investigators (to the right in the pic) named Pedro and Janice with their daughter Carol at a members house. We hope that the message we left them made a difference and helped them to see how God really is answering their prayers and with a bit of luck and a lot of help from the Lord we will see some miracles with them! The message was this super cool trick that Elder Longo did to demonstrate the atonement sucking water into a cup buring toilet paper to rescue a coin from "sin" really cool.<br />
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Anyway love you all hand I hope the week goes well!</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Elder Pierce<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Having fun with E. Longo</td></tr>
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Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-71358182401727269792015-11-09T17:08:00.003-08:002015-11-09T17:08:54.802-08:00Reunited and it Feels So Good!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b> Us</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>11/9/2015</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">This week went by super fast 'ta louco. By the time that everyone is reading this letter Elder Longo will probably be back in São Paulo living out his post mission dreams and driving a car which he said was his greatest desire after not driving for 2 years haha. For Elder Longo's last Pday we went bowling! It was super fun, we laughed a lot and I even won the first game! And it was a great opportunity to take a bunch of pictures haha.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">this was my favorite picture, perfect timing!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> I won the game! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> (77 points in that last slot and yes the lady spelled my name pircee)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Irmão Pedro and his family decided that they wanted to wait until all of the members of the family were ready to be baptized so this week didn't work out for them. Besides the end of mission stress and trials, Elder Longo was happy that they and some other investigators of ours are progressing well and should be baptized this month. We were even able to get in contact with Irmã Edelci for the first time in a while and she seems to have sorted out some key stuff that she needed to which is exciting! </span><br />
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Irmão Pedro and those of his family who came to church<br />
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Edelci and Ana paula at church<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK5ZIPRezE7pDLNMpJeEa-67MYh1SpJ68Ynq8lJZngNuW15didIg7tozpRJ47Vgd5_D1Cp0O0GIWHoWVszaNZDg27AVpH9uXmlFOS5JVc3Ss9w_UTPrYp7VLSC2hR1ePCeQwSZScFk83cz/s1600/IMG_2464.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK5ZIPRezE7pDLNMpJeEa-67MYh1SpJ68Ynq8lJZngNuW15didIg7tozpRJ47Vgd5_D1Cp0O0GIWHoWVszaNZDg27AVpH9uXmlFOS5JVc3Ss9w_UTPrYp7VLSC2hR1ePCeQwSZScFk83cz/s320/IMG_2464.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">And here's the exciting transfer news... **drum roll**... I will stay here in Santo Ângelo until the end of my mission! I was already expecting that especially because Elder Longo left the area and President Parrela in my last interview with him only told me stories about when he was in the last area on his mission and then told me after "...fica firme aí Elder Pierce." (stay firm there (literal translation)) And my "new" companion will be Elder Souza Santos!!! again!!! I was super excited when I saw that he would be my companion because I loved serving with him in São Pedro do Sul at the beginning of the year and we work really well together so that's pretty cool that he will be my assassin haha. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Today (Monday) 4:15 pm I will get on a bus to Santa Maria where I will meet up with Elder Souza Santos and stay there the night to be ready for the Mission Council early Tuesday morning. Afterwards we will catch a bus around 2:00pm Tuesday back to Santo Ângelo and we will hit the ground running back to work! Exciting :) I have a feeling that these last 5 weeks of my mission will go by very quickly!</span><br />
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Love you all family and have a great week!</div>
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Elder Longo's last district meeting<br />
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morto haha<br />
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everyone sad<br />
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this picture scared me a bit...<br />
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when we ate at a restaurant this week there was a NC license plate on the wall!<br />
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the last pizza<br />
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last day pics witht the comp<br />
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chiquisão (suppa fly) with our matching ties<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">on his way home </span></td></tr>
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Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-25437335263511837742015-10-26T09:16:00.000-07:002015-10-26T09:17:26.575-07:00A Stormy Vacation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b> On my way to Santa Maria</b></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>10/26/2015</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">The time always flies by when there are exchanges and during this past week there were two! After district meeting on Tuesday I went with Elder Campos in my area so that Elder Longo could go with Elder Araújo (our District Leader) which was all good seeing as we live in the same house, no traveling involved. </span><br />
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our district meeting<br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> I don't know why we did the YMCA pose...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> (and neither does Sister C there in the front, haha)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">But on Wednesday I we had the exchange with the assistants of the transfer so that means a lot of bus time... ughh, so I headed out 11:20 and arrived in the city around 3:20. A good old friend Elder Rocha <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ZYC5dUcPmAeW3qiOGWGrjgmz-zksbustUBx2Kk-vmtdyuhB-b5Vy-LUO5bkfubQdpwoDKWsshh4wuCJ7AXfW9yTzgeLV_jN4bt5KTqcCVEyIMCfH19v8uyyv1Pk2-MWIB8owfDKGMUYT/s1600/IMG_2367+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ZYC5dUcPmAeW3qiOGWGrjgmz-zksbustUBx2Kk-vmtdyuhB-b5Vy-LUO5bkfubQdpwoDKWsshh4wuCJ7AXfW9yTzgeLV_jN4bt5KTqcCVEyIMCfH19v8uyyv1Pk2-MWIB8owfDKGMUYT/s400/IMG_2367+-+Copy.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exchange with Elder Rocha Martins <br />
(we lived in the same house back in Cruz Alta a year ago)</td></tr>
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Martins was waiting for me there and we went straight to work, but the day turned out to be more of a stormy vacation than an exchange, haha. There have been a lot of crazy storms passing through the area of southern Brasil that have caused a lot of damage to many houses. We had a service project planned to help an investigator of theirs move out of their house which was literally falling over. So we switched clothes back at their house and headed out but just when we got there the rain started to fall. Before we were even able to fill one truck load the crazy thunder and wind came rolling. Because of all these crazy storms with hail and lightning etc. Pres. Parrela has made it very clear that our safety is in first place so... we were stuck there in the falling down house with the family haha. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">After a good time waiting to see if the rain would die down we decided to sprint in the rain to a near by members house, the rain was so hard running down my face I thought my contacts would fall out. Thankfully we were awaited there by towels and something similar to a "pig-in-a-blanket" that the irmã was baking, yumm. But alas the storm wouldn't calm down so after another wait we had to go walking home in the calmer-ish rain, all in our service project clothes haha. By the time we got back to the mission house and changed clothes it was 8:00 and we only had time to go to an appointment they had marked with a family of recent converts for dinner! (which was very welcome seeing that I didn't have time to eat anything for lunch haha) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">But yeah, that was our little vacation and Thursday I was back on a bus 12:10 to Santo Ângelo where I arrived very tired of bus rides at 4:00. Also this week I completed 1 year and 9 months on the mission! pretty crazy especially because that means I have less than 2 months down to go... wow </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> gotta celebrate 1 year and 9 months with only 2 months left!</span><br />
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I hope y'all have a great week! Love ya family :)</div>
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Elder Pierce<br />
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coming in through the mountains (out the bus window)<br />
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cool view of the city<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">more city shots</span></td></tr>
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Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-84244285956610053602015-10-19T18:54:00.000-07:002015-10-19T18:54:26.633-07:00Keep on Rolling!<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b><br /></b></span>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b> Zone Meeting</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>10/19/2015</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Well things never seem to stop here. We had the other half of our zone meeting with Santo Ângelo and Santa Rosa on Tuesday. Since the Missionaries from Santa Rosa had to come in early in the morning they didn't have anything to eat for breakfast so Elder Longo and I made them pancakes that we brought to eat at the chapel before the meeting started. Maybe they didn't turn out so good but it's the thought that counts right? haha After the meeting I was able to stay in my own area this time to do an exchange with a new American elder. I realized how far my Portuguese has really come my time here in the mission... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> Pancakes</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Anyway Elder Longo and I are working hard we've got some great investigators in sight to be baptized and some new investigators are popping out right before our eyes it seems. So when it comes time to chill out at home we all like to laugh and joke a lot. Elder Longo has this big horn called a "berrante" (bay-hans-chee) which he uses to beat box on occasion hahaha.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> Elder Long getting funky with his horn</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">he was doing beat box horn style hahaha</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">On Friday I traveled to São Luiz Gonzaga to do a baptismal interview for the elders there. Due to the timing of the buses I was only able to travel back to Santo Ângelo on Saturday morning. but it was cool <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">Elder Smith (on the left int he photo) <br />said that he met Noah out at BYU, small world </span></td></tr>
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because they bought be a hot dog and I found out that the American there, Elder Smith met Noah out at BYU, small world haha. This week I will have to go to Santa Maria for an exchange with the assistants which will be cool but a bit tiring (4 hours on a bus there and then 4 back) and expensive! But well see how it goes :)</span><br />
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Love you all family!, sorry the email was short I hope this week finds you all well!</div>
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Elder Pierce<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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the weather is getting better...ish haha<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">Hotdogs with the Elders in São Luiz Gonzaga<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></td></tr>
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Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-64526483983643256472015-10-12T15:57:00.000-07:002015-10-12T15:57:29.097-07:006 Days and Counting...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b> </b></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Us at the <b>Zone Meeting</b> with Santiago and São Luiz Gonzaga (half of the zone)</span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </b><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>10/12/2015</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Hello family! I have to give a shout out for the super exciting news: PARABÉNS Elder Noah Pierce in your call to the </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 12.8px;">AUSTRALIA BRISBANE MISSION!!! I gave a big WOO! here in the lan-house when I opened the email haha and I'm still amazed, Australia... that's just too awesome :) </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Anyway so this morning was the first time that we saw the sun in about a week, and it didnt even stay too long.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </span>(this is the view out of our room's window)</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> Today is the 6th day and counting that it's rained which makes everything harder but you've just gotta deal with it :/ Elder Longo and I's trip last week went well. We arrived in São Luiz Gonzaga on Monday around 7:00 pm, time enough to do some contacts at random in the city and even teach a lesson which was funny because neither Elder Longo or I had been around the city before. But then when we got up early to head off for Santiago on Tuesday morning the stinking bus went super slow and we had to run to get to the Zone meeting in time 10:00am.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Besides running in late the meeting went really well, Elder Longo talked about the importance of new investigators and I talked about baptismal invitations. It was cool to explain about how Christ could be with us in our lessons as we used the scriptures, His own words, to invite people to be baptized. Anyway, afterwards we both stayed in Santiago to do exchanges with the 2 companionships of elders that are in the city. I went with Elder Wassom (the American doing thumbs up on the left'ish side to the front in the zone picture) who is the district leader in Santiago. The exchange went well, I told Elder Wassom "Elder, the first 20 contacts are yours, if you don't do them I will!" (because one of the areas evaluated during exchanges is talking with everyone) Obviously I helped too but it was cool because we went talking with everybody that we saw and at the end of the day we really did get 20 adresses of people to visit that we did contacts with in the street :D so that was a good experience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Elder Longo and I reunited the next morning and returned back to Santo Ângelo early Wednesday (the pics of us in the street and the bus etc.) which meant that we had a lot of work to catch up on in our own area... which the rain didnt help with. But yea thats about it haha, This week we have the other half of the zone meeting here in Santo Ângelo with Santa Rosa and with more exchanges and rain to come.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Love you family! and I hope everyone has a good week :) </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Elder Pierce <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: 14px;">Elder Longo and I walking in the street on our way back from Santiago</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: 14px;">view of the street from the front window of the bus in Santiago</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;"> it went dark again and in this pic it's raining but you can't see it, haha</span></td></tr>
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Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-80667316593189882612015-10-12T14:23:00.003-07:002015-10-12T14:23:56.259-07:00Conference Overload, too good!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQmcPKXe30eCRHCiYitcjzzKuMjVEBypiZPJT1C7ThS22lL3lg0OXEBPoVQvd5dh_GtEkgE0Vt4wsX06NYvOvCul_AEvfs0qSX0cGAXhU1IgBhgvqGPUh2rbCY5X9Ck5Ti8vABf-7hQBh3/s1600/IMG_2277.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQmcPKXe30eCRHCiYitcjzzKuMjVEBypiZPJT1C7ThS22lL3lg0OXEBPoVQvd5dh_GtEkgE0Vt4wsX06NYvOvCul_AEvfs0qSX0cGAXhU1IgBhgvqGPUh2rbCY5X9Ck5Ti8vABf-7hQBh3/s640/IMG_2277.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>We always do a big group shout "BAH-TCHÊ-ZAR" </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>10/5/2015</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Well this first week of the transfer has been super busy. My new companion Elder Longo arrived 7:30pm on Tuesday and we were already back on a bus 5:00am Wednesday heading to Santa Maria for the Zone Conference. Elder Longo is from Americana, São Paulo, besides being close to the end <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx61GaCyaClvpCOFu5RE89WSd_cQlKSVcXmVWl9J9L49DZPlhul_ruKZd-5xQBvGR2aYOnm0cF_6FMwv514O54Wz2WyuhzB97Yj0d9FNnvE61qr75KNg3SCZTNBiZOwLlKs7hF4LfrueYP/s1600/IMG_2270.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx61GaCyaClvpCOFu5RE89WSd_cQlKSVcXmVWl9J9L49DZPlhul_ruKZd-5xQBvGR2aYOnm0cF_6FMwv514O54Wz2WyuhzB97Yj0d9FNnvE61qr75KNg3SCZTNBiZOwLlKs7hF4LfrueYP/s400/IMG_2270.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">meu companheiro now Elder Longo</span></td></tr>
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he is very much "alive" haha here in the field. We work together great and I'm sure that this month we will have good results. It's cool to have an experienced companion because from the beginning the lessons we teach are super good and things flow really well. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Anyway back to the Zone Conference it was funny because there were new American missionaries who had arrived in the field that day and so I served as the translator for one of the elders. It was fun to translate but it also takes up all of the brain power so I didn't really retain much, haha. But one of the things that Presidente Parrela talked about was the "prophetic emphasis" that the leaders of the church are putting on keeping the Sabbath day Holy. And that was strongly reaffirmed in the General Conference. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">I was super excited to see the 3 new apostles called, Elders Ronald A Rasband, Gary E Stevenson, and Dale G Renlund. And I loved what they did with the hymn the Spirit of God, way cool, I think that was the first time they did solos at conference. Four things that called my attention during the conference: 1) again the emphasis that they put on keeping the sabbath day holy, wow I think that at least half of the speakers touched on that, I even as a missionary am trying to think of how to be better now, seeing that we practically keep every day as the sabbath. 2) To do our part and trust that the Lord is with us in our work and service. 3) Elder Stevenson and Elder Renlund when they bore their testimonies spoke about how the Lord uses the simple and weak to preach the gospel and how our callings really don't have to do with us and how the Lord qualifies who he calls, cool. 4) And I felt that many speakers also talked about how we can seek answers through the spirit. So much conference, I loved it :) haha </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Now I've got to get running back to home because Elder Longo and I will be traveling to do half of our Zone Meeting tomorrow. We leave Santo Ângelo 5:00pm and will spend the night in São Luiz Gonzaga then tomorrow (Tuesday) we go with the elders in São Luiz to Santiago where we will have the meeting and do exchanges with the district leader there. We will finally come back to Santo Ângleo Wednesday morning, what a rush but it'll be good :)</span><br />
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Love you all and have a great week</div>
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Elder Pierce </div>
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Pizza before Zone Conference Tuesday with the elders from Santa Rosa<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyH1KL4jWvyRFBeprE9Q12ttNyrmbCqYIZeWdL6KmY2SRmg3M_JYsG9AaRhZwKPuo89J_e9MO2wyGsyz_eNpWynXP3w_8GiQN6SNGsEo3h3pR1_atDJtt549cioFpJZ2ulQgP4yuFS2HCs/s1600/IMG_2262.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyH1KL4jWvyRFBeprE9Q12ttNyrmbCqYIZeWdL6KmY2SRmg3M_JYsG9AaRhZwKPuo89J_e9MO2wyGsyz_eNpWynXP3w_8GiQN6SNGsEo3h3pR1_atDJtt549cioFpJZ2ulQgP4yuFS2HCs/s320/IMG_2262.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Pics with former companions at the zone meeting:</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy_pqLgDkPj8pi5MU2lOb1OWrN_mBmXhkBCyVI_R1LTw8GvmWAWDTbtxDa70YaD8atW2qOSCPVxBy3kCK6CjLYh9Z7liclfun86E8irBhccvqnRLdbkulvyoHJTPVmb-szYX341AFIiPij/s1600/IMG_2267.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy_pqLgDkPj8pi5MU2lOb1OWrN_mBmXhkBCyVI_R1LTw8GvmWAWDTbtxDa70YaD8atW2qOSCPVxBy3kCK6CjLYh9Z7liclfun86E8irBhccvqnRLdbkulvyoHJTPVmb-szYX341AFIiPij/s320/IMG_2267.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Lailson Silva<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj63elUFknYwFPEv9161fZ9fnYTeyhzCCEqhWY3MfY3gwie6gitYAprA-e6A-hMQUCHm1EaeSYA-pZbSB1zeJ27RJlZfBHhimMx9OHnpOy2LX9QTInnRUDetWn_W01TEoJX1FJX0mLARaOE/s1600/IMG_2269.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj63elUFknYwFPEv9161fZ9fnYTeyhzCCEqhWY3MfY3gwie6gitYAprA-e6A-hMQUCHm1EaeSYA-pZbSB1zeJ27RJlZfBHhimMx9OHnpOy2LX9QTInnRUDetWn_W01TEoJX1FJX0mLARaOE/s320/IMG_2269.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Araujo<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKMhcm1W57vUZHdiVoOiIhrFJuIsw_o6yAb6-hBHpuv_DatoWeLZfH-rVVQpy3-swTyJAnI-llXAs-Og2pB01_1Ju5166IsCxfKANAupgX_rKdIxO_q4bjSNrh6oL5Rrp67pdctapCdKfm/s1600/IMG_2272.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKMhcm1W57vUZHdiVoOiIhrFJuIsw_o6yAb6-hBHpuv_DatoWeLZfH-rVVQpy3-swTyJAnI-llXAs-Og2pB01_1Ju5166IsCxfKANAupgX_rKdIxO_q4bjSNrh6oL5Rrp67pdctapCdKfm/s320/IMG_2272.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Santos Araujo<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEq2l7pv85fzp-pyjy5ixLLLNWohaGS2a1PRn9PPGL73JWFskN0SrLP41EnAj3sYWrz1TceMLNA3c8D401zLukq-yn2nclJSs5CqwMP-bMRW6hEsP9FunOSBJ7pPyTTG8zBS9B95Z6Gp1E/s1600/IMG_2275.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEq2l7pv85fzp-pyjy5ixLLLNWohaGS2a1PRn9PPGL73JWFskN0SrLP41EnAj3sYWrz1TceMLNA3c8D401zLukq-yn2nclJSs5CqwMP-bMRW6hEsP9FunOSBJ7pPyTTG8zBS9B95Z6Gp1E/s320/IMG_2275.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-80274294131915169942015-09-28T14:28:00.002-07:002015-09-28T14:47:44.468-07:00Wait for the Pillar of Light<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4p5h87nUze1r_NcOwzn6Cs5Mm6vPeSNlsriW9KqUZxFVAtPVSXBU4AzH7W3b5C3VkYdKPlu_aJ9qHZ0en8zoBzzmN3Tvf2KRGg1gNBNaSu3OrTZvpqE9XuLr00PDYWfVSuIMq6DIn9DsS/s1600/IMG_2245.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4p5h87nUze1r_NcOwzn6Cs5Mm6vPeSNlsriW9KqUZxFVAtPVSXBU4AzH7W3b5C3VkYdKPlu_aJ9qHZ0en8zoBzzmN3Tvf2KRGg1gNBNaSu3OrTZvpqE9XuLr00PDYWfVSuIMq6DIn9DsS/s640/IMG_2245.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<b> Farewell to a friend!</b><br />
<b>9/28/2015</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">This week was a busy one. When the transfer came out we got together all of the missionaries here in Santo Ângelo and went to the chapel to reveal to everyone their new areas. It was pretty fun to see everyone's reactions together. Obviously Elder Navas was transferred back to São Paulo (home) and my new companion is Elder Longo who will die this next transfer, two kill streak haha. We took a lot of funny pictures For Elder Navas' last district meeting and everyone laughed a lot at my facial expressions. </span><br />
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We had the opportunity this week to be very grateful for the blessings that God has given us and to look for his hand in all things. On Saturday morning when we were on our way to the chapel to get things ready for the baptism that night we got a call from our Bishop. He said that he had talked with Edelci the night before and that she had decided to not be baptized today. A bit in shock we called Edelci and as soon as we could went straight to her house to talk it out. I haven't prayed so fervently practically running in the street, ever. When we got to her house she explained to us that she talked with her boyfriend, who lives in another city, and that he wanted to be baptized together with her. But he hasn't even met the missionaries and so he wanted her to wait until November or something to see if everything would work out. Very calmly Elder Navas and I explained to her that she had already received an answer from God of what she should do. I told her about the experience of Joseph Smith before the first vision. That before one of the greatest miracles that has ever occurred there was also great opposition. That this was the opposition that God had given her so that she could over come it and be able to partake in one of the greatest miracles of her life and take the first step in our salvation. The Spirit was super strong and we felt sure that she would decide to be baptized again. We said a last prayer and she said she would call her boyfriend again to talk it out and give us a final answer after. Elder Navas and I went straight to the chapel to fill up the baptismal font in faith that she would make the right decision. But regretfully, a few minutes before we had marked for the baptism to start she <br />
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called us cancelling... Needless to say we felt quite sad and a bit shocked but thinking about it after we have many chances to be grateful for the service that we give and that we did our part. This only was a part of our own opposition before the miracles in our life and now we just have to wait for the pillar of light.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Oq_et8ONAjwHIuPMULLhWQEWFtkQDLpNev9LSKCUVAaVF_OSzY7u3xDeyjWgBQGRz_nydlzIXVwxF2_VwTtNxy5XtPNp8Sbq7fkMtCFqcxRPrM8NMGya-JmuWHqQSScwr9o5ht-grrPK/s1600/joseph-smith-preparation-the-first-vision-01_00_04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Oq_et8ONAjwHIuPMULLhWQEWFtkQDLpNev9LSKCUVAaVF_OSzY7u3xDeyjWgBQGRz_nydlzIXVwxF2_VwTtNxy5XtPNp8Sbq7fkMtCFqcxRPrM8NMGya-JmuWHqQSScwr9o5ht-grrPK/s320/joseph-smith-preparation-the-first-vision-01_00_04.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/joseph-smith#" target="_blank">Read more about the prophet Joseph Smith's First Vision</a><br />
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Elder Navas went to Santa Maria on Sunday and now I'm with the other Elders until my companion arrives on Tuesday. Then BAM on Wednesday we have to travel to Santa Maria for Zone conference and this weekend will be awesome with General Conference and new apostles, very excited!</div>
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Love you all family I pray for you every day :)</div>
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Elder Pierce<br />
<b> Despedida (Farewell) Elder Navas</b><br />
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Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-84199906687861689352015-09-21T14:03:00.000-07:002015-09-21T14:03:23.746-07:00Dreams, Miracles and... It's the Final Count Down! (de de de dee...)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b> </b>Here we are when Elder Halverson came for the exchange in </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>9/21/2015</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Well we are coming up to the last week of the transfer and the last week of Elder Navas. I have never bought so much pizza and stuff than in his efforts to make these last weeks of his mission "da hora" <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">Elder Navas loves pizza, who are we to disagree?!?</span></td></tr>
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(cool or fun, etc) As the time comes he gets thinking a lot so to take his mind off of everything last P-day we played badminton with a volley-ball net , rackets and birdy that we found cleaning out the house when President and Sister Parrela came. Haha it was quite fun and did a great job of distracting Elder Navas especially with his 12 game winning streak. And there's nothing that can really change the fact that if your companion is going home you just can't help but think about how it's gonna be when your time comes too. Especially when it's close, this week makes 1 year and 8 months on the mission. It makes me feel a bit old sometimes, but then I look over at Elder Navas... and I realize haha I'm not that old hahaha. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> <b> Epic Indoor Badminton Tournament</b></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Here's a super cool experience that happened this week. We had our exchange with the AP, assistant to the president, Elder Halverson who I lived with back in Cruz Alta almost a year ago. In our first visit of the day we went to teach </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Irmã</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> (Sister) Edelci, the mother of Ana Paula, the young woman who was baptized last month. We have been preparing Edelci to be baptized this last weekend of the month and we brought her baptismal sheet (record? not sure how you call it in English...) to fill out and make everything official for the 26th. When we got to her house the moment we sat down she said to us "I had a dream!" She had already shared with us some other dreams that she has had in the past so I was getting ready for some crazy story but she looked straight at Elder Navas and continued, "I dreamed that you baptized me." And we all just looked at each other wide eyed, BAH! (gaúcho slang: wow!) The spirit was super strong and Elder Navas said to her "Irmã Edelci you have no idea how much this means to me." And really this has made a huge difference for him especially to help him here in the final stretch. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">So yea that was awesome, I'm hanging in there and we'll see what happens with the transfers this week, for sure I'll have a new companion haha. We will have our Zone conference (Meeting with Presidente and half the mission) next week which means the first week of the transfer so Presidente has to do things a bit faster to give everyone time to prepare so instead of Friday, the transfer will probably come out on Wednesday, we'll see, no worries on my part :)</span><br />
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Love you all and have a great week!</div>
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Elder Pierce<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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the district<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">this is our apartment building in the "center" or downtown</span></td></tr>
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Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-76012685474291110182015-09-14T17:49:00.001-07:002015-09-14T17:49:24.483-07:00Thank Goodness for a Normal Week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>9/14/2015</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">I feel like there was a lot of stuff yet at the same time a whole lot of nothing that happened this week haha. This was the first week that I or Elder Navas didn't have to travel to another city! Thank goodness, but we still had an exchange which went cool because I was with Elder Araújo my old companion who is our district leader here in Santo Angelo. The day was full of good memories and great experiences. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Anyway the entire week we were waiting for the eminent visit from President and Sister Parrela for house inspections and another round of personal interviews. Finally on Friday morning the dreaded "imperial march" ring tone that we put for President on our phone rang and in short time he and Sister were in our house throwing away a bunch of old stuff and doing the interviews. I always like personal interviews with Presidente Parrela in his "with sugar" mode haha. He talked to me a lot about how I'm going back in December and to be alright about it (which I already am but it's a nice reconfirmation) and how he talked with the mission department and how there wasn't really any other option. He also talked about his last area in his mission and the difficulties that he went through but to keep firm till the end and continue to be excellent etc... Pretty much indirect hints that I think I might be here in Santo Angelo until December, we shall see. And as the family has guessed it makes sense too for me to stay here because Elder Navas will be going back home in 14 days (a count he doesn't let anyone forget haha) Elder Navas says that when he gets trunky (thinking about home) he starts to joke around a lot. Lets just say that the day is non-stop laughter haha. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Other stuff from this week... hummm we walked around a lot contacting "dead records" that the church sends in a "Rescue List" each trimester. Usually the list has 20 names but ours had 57! and we were stuck with 32 all spread out in the area... fun. </span><br />
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But yea I'll repent and send a bunch of pictures next week, Love y'all!</div>
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Elder Pierce </div>
Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-65030519159132019742015-09-07T14:51:00.002-07:002015-09-07T14:55:59.182-07:00I'm an Assassin!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b> </b> Participating in the Mission Council</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>9/7/2015</b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Navas traveling again</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">My companion Elder Navas got an email today confirming that he will be going home one transfer early which means in 3 weeks bah! When a missionary ends his mission it's called "dying" and his last companion "kills" him so I'm going to kill Elder Navas haha. Elder Navas had already been talking with President Parrela some time about the date change so he was already expecting it, haha but still he gave a huge shout when he read the email. And then I gave another shout when I got the news of the timing of my flights home haha crazy! </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLOlYNoicn6jp5xBT068H-e01DjYGsPeZ0KJImEuGKXQkaDwuCLyFAjvoAOAjKFaKAvUaxB-mL0TnIJVLIzr800dfUHs7reCaOo7mYRhPTN9nppgYzHPaOEm16lZksMIUECmzC-5pRNb6_/s1600/IMG_2156.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLOlYNoicn6jp5xBT068H-e01DjYGsPeZ0KJImEuGKXQkaDwuCLyFAjvoAOAjKFaKAvUaxB-mL0TnIJVLIzr800dfUHs7reCaOo7mYRhPTN9nppgYzHPaOEm16lZksMIUECmzC-5pRNb6_/s400/IMG_2156.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bus rides are the best, haha.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Anyway things about this week: we had the second half of our Zone conference this week which went well. Then Elder Navas went to Santa Rosa for exchanges and I stayed with Elder Cardoso, the district leader from Santa Rosa here in Santo Ângelo. So again I spent half the week without my companion and it always rains during our exchanges. The second half of the week went pretty awesome. We had the baptism of Nandara on Saturday, her friend who first talked to her about the gospel, William, did the baptism. I got to do my favorite part and sing a solo to close out the baptism. "Eu Sei Que Vive Meu Senhor" ( I know that my redeemer lives) always makes everyone cry :') haha. And a funny bit, here is also a holiday in Brasil: their Independence Day!</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> N</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">othing is open and we convinced the lan-house (internet place) to open just for us this afternoon.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> So that also means that no stores where open for us to buy lunch so we met up with a member who whipped up a mini churrasco yumm. </span><br />
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So yea sorry for the short email but I love you all and until next week!</div>
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Elder Pierce<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP2-Ea-pyxu4HEsbfBxXo0k0byKpK9r5f5n5gaox6wnc9VnMPQe_8XXh8WPsdTaKeoyC81MTBOuGPPyCHp8BDRU-NKsCkWYhR98BZJqs0IboZvFaajittx9vxuQJUCNKuEgayVYDBuEHKd/s1600/IMG_2173.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP2-Ea-pyxu4HEsbfBxXo0k0byKpK9r5f5n5gaox6wnc9VnMPQe_8XXh8WPsdTaKeoyC81MTBOuGPPyCHp8BDRU-NKsCkWYhR98BZJqs0IboZvFaajittx9vxuQJUCNKuEgayVYDBuEHKd/s400/IMG_2173.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We got creative and made pancakes. </td></tr>
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Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-61875673009224316762015-08-31T14:21:00.000-07:002015-08-31T14:21:32.917-07:00Not Only in our Dreams!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b> </b></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Elder Navas and I on the bus to Santiago for Zone meeting last P-day</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>8/31/2015</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">So here's the big news of the week! On Wednesday morning in a casual call to Elder Sargent (MTC companion and current secretary of the mission) ordering more pamphlets of the restoration for our zone Elder Sargent stopped me mid-sentence and said "Elder Pierce! you'll never believe what Presidente Parrela told me right now!" me: "what?!" him: "Presidente moved the transfer date in December from the 22nd to the 15th" At this point I was thinking oh great, for sure we will leave the mission in the middle of the transfer in January or something crazy like that because I can't go home any earlier than the 23rd. But then Elder Sargent continued, "So Presidente Parrela asked the mission department about us and they gave the OK to send us home on the 15th too!" I was speechless... I'm coming home on the 15th of December! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">To be honest I had some mixed feelings... it means that not "only in our dreams" but in real life too I'll be home for Christmas! and without the crazy rush that I was imagining on Christmas-eve. But that also means that I will serve my mission for 1 year 10 months and 23 days, only from 2014 to 2015, which feels a good bit less than 2 years at the moment, but this wasn't my decision and they didn't even ask our opinion , so I just have to accept the will of the Lord in my life and for my mission. But then comes back to excitement I'll be home for Christmas! And its was officially official when I got the "email da morte" (email of death) today telling you when you the date when you will go home. It's super weird to think that the end is really coming soon but then again we don't have much time to think here in my area haha.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiucwKOkACe7Vv8CnBLXxx2qtcDY7N-w5lJnIxqKBFtJ9qKCVDdxMaz_ztFlJPLqm3QqvRukSC3U257xVxCjPkX8Tm3NMSqJ9WRPv8GKTOAR_z0j5WMlkAbET07LSJte7do9IkhOAvPrdtI/s1600/IMG_2166.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiucwKOkACe7Vv8CnBLXxx2qtcDY7N-w5lJnIxqKBFtJ9qKCVDdxMaz_ztFlJPLqm3QqvRukSC3U257xVxCjPkX8Tm3NMSqJ9WRPv8GKTOAR_z0j5WMlkAbET07LSJte7do9IkhOAvPrdtI/s400/IMG_2166.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">Half of our zone</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Last week's traveling went well and this week will be just about as busy. I took lots of pics of us on the bus traveling to Santiago for "Part I" of our Zone Meeting</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">my old friend and companion Elder Alvarenga is in our zone</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">On the way back to Santo Ângelo </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">thats how pretty much all the trip goes...</span></td></tr>
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and of this creepy mannequin named Juan that the missionaries of Santiago have in their house where we slept Monday night. It was quite funny when I went to the bathroom and saw that black figure with a knife in its belt in the shower, everyone died laughing when I yelled, haha good laughs.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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how we found "Juan" when we woke up<br />
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And of course we can't go on an exchange without buying something good to eat and taking pictures :) <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">This week we have "Part II" of our Zone Meeting here in Santo Ângelo and the other elders from Santa Rosa will come down to join with us. Then obviously to take advantage of the timing I will stay here in Santo Ângelo with the District Leader in Santa Rosa to do an exchange an Elder Navas will be off to the other area. Crazier yet will be the next day on Wednesday when Elder Navas will have to go from Santa Rosa all the way to Santiago to do a baptismal interview and probably wont be able to get back here to Santo Ângelo until Thursday morning because of </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">the darn... timing of the buses to get back. And all of this while I'll have to prepare the baptism of one of our investigators, meet with the Mission leader, finish teaching the last lessons, plan with the bishop certinho, plan the baptismal interview etc. Pretty crazy that with all of this traveling and stuff we still have to get our own work done too!</span><br />
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Anyway I love you all and have a great week!</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Elder Pierce</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span>Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-40926792855768311112015-08-24T14:10:00.003-07:002015-08-24T14:10:44.666-07:00Super Busy!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b> Elder Navas my new companion!</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>8/24/2015</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Hey Family! Sorry that this email is a bit short. This being the first week of the transfer we had to do a bunch of relatórios (reports?) and update everything for the zone. And seeing as our zone is the largest in the mission that took a bit haha.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The new comp Elder Navas!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> I'm having a great time with my new companion Elder Navas! A bit about him, he is from São Paulo, São Paulo and is 26 years old. He already graduated from college with a degree in fiances and President Parrela had him as the missions financial secretary for about a year haha. Elder Navas has 1 year and 10 months-ish on the mission and so he is heading home pretty soon, he is trying to not let his mind go crazy with all the stuff that involves going back home, his work, fiance, family etc. It's my job to help him not die haha (its called dying when you loose focus at the end of the mission) 1 year and 10 months sounds like a lot until I remember that this past week I also completed 1 year and 7 months... wow. Elder Navas and I conversate super naturally and it's fun to hear his stories haha so we laugh a lot and it's great to teach with him too, só poder e autoridade! (only power and authority!)</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mission Council</td></tr>
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I can already tell that this transfer will be really busy. After getting back from the mission council late </span>Tuesday<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> night we planned out all of the trips that we will have to make for the zone meetings and exchanges, not even to </span>mention the<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> baptismal interviews that will come later. This week we have Zone meeting with one half of the zone. We are going to take a bus to Santiago 3:00pm today (about now) and we arrive there 8:55pm (the bus stops a lot in other </span>cities<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">) and we'll sleep there tonight. The elders from </span>São<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span>Luiz<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span>Gonzaga<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> will come to Santiago the next morning and we'll have the Zone meeting. Then after I will travel back to </span>Santo<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span>Ângelo<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> with the </span>jr<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> companion of the </span>LD<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> in Santiago and Elder </span>Navas<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> will do the exchange there in Santiago and the next day he with do another exchange in </span>São<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span>Luiz<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span>Gonzaga<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">. Then finally Thursday morning the </span>jr<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> form Santiago will return to his area and Elder </span>Navas<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> comes back home. Yea </span>that's<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> all a bit </span>confusing<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> and was a </span>huge<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> head ache to </span>figure<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> out and </span>that's<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> only this week! </span>haha<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> so I hope that made sense and </span>that's<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span>how<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span>I'm<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> doing! We planned the Zone Meeting this morning and the theme is "Study the Doctrines Deeply not Deep Doctrines" </span>haha<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span><br />
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Love you all!!! and have a great week back at school and all, until next week!</div>
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Elder Pierce </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">A random weird flower that I think should be in the movie Avatar (the blue people)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Goodbye Elder Santos Araujo</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> us eating a xis</span>Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-11736459209597381872015-08-17T16:02:00.000-07:002015-08-17T16:02:30.868-07:00A Wacked Out Week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">A pizza for the goodbyes of Elder Santos Araujo </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">and the other Sister who is leaving too (the one on the far left)</span></div>
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<b>8/17/2015</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">This week was very wacked out with lots of odd and different stuff that happened. After an exchange that I had with Elder Belleville on Tuesday I woke up Wednesday in the early morning with stomach pains. Uh oh that's right, so I spent the entire morning with bad stomach virus stuff throwing up diarrhea etc. (And this had to happen the week after Dad asked me if I had been sick from the food and stuff yet and I said no haha thanks for jinxing it Dad) In the afternoon I decided to take some anti-diarrhea medicine that I've had with me since the beginning of the mission, which did what it said it would do but shortly after I was overcome with exhaustion and body pains etc. and I knocked out until around 8:30 when I finally woke back up I had a fever of 100.7 F and read on the side effects of the medicine "drowsiness, tiredness, dizziness" and to ask a doctor before use if I had fever. So I was like (excuse my french) "oh crap" (haha it's funny after) Elder Santos Araujo was a good sick helper he even make me chicken noodle soup when I woke up at night. So besides the fact that I think the second half of the day I was suffering more the effects of the dern medicine I just took some Advil to help the fever and in general, went to sleep and woke up much better the next day. On the bright side this was the first time in my entire mission that I've had to stay home because I was sick which is pretty lucky. And I hope that I will wait another year and a half or more to throw up again too. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">It was a good thing that I got better because I had to travel to Santa Rosa that night (Thursday) for a baptismal interview which went well. And when I got back from the interview around 10:00pm I came into our room and I saw the transfers sheet on the desk! (As zone leaders we are emailed a spreadsheet with all the missionaries and where they are and where they will be transferred to etc. so that we can call everyone to tell them where they were transferred to.) So I grabbed the transfer sheet and here's the news: I'm staying here in Santo Ângelo but I'm gonna have a new companion who is another old friend named Elder Navas. He was my zone leader back in Livramento while I was district leader so that's a bit funny that now we are working together. He is nicknamed the bishop of the mission because he is 26 years old haha but he's a great guy and I already know that we get along well. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Anyway so the next day, Friday, Elder Santos Araujo had to travel early in the morning to São Luiz Gonzaga to do some baptismal interviews there. But we didn't have any time to plan our day or even mark with anyone to stay with me until Elder Santos Araujo would come back. So I scrambled calling some people and thankfully we have a guy who is preparing to leave for his mission in a bit and he's already left his work and everything so that he can go and so he was available all day to stay with me. And it was a good thing too because some wacky stuff happened with the timing of the interview in the other city with Elder Santos Araujo and he wasn't able to get back here in Santo Ângelo until 8:00pm. Also that was my first time "alone" in the area having to lead everything which is good practice seeing as I'll have to show the entire area to my new companion. But yea between being sick and traveling and baptismal interviews and all my week was kind of wacked up and I don't think this next week will be much calmer traveling to Santa Maria for the mission council tomorrow morning and having a new companion and all that great stuff that we do as missionaries :)</span><br />
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Anyway Love you all and have a great end of the summer!</div>
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Elder Pierce</div>
Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-79827203078335340232015-08-10T10:29:00.000-07:002015-08-10T10:29:49.782-07:00Highlights<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b> Baptism Day</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>8/10/2015</b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Answer to the puzzle :)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">It was so good to see all of the family and special guest Spencer at the skype session yesterday! Just a few of the high-lights from the conversation to keep everyone filled in. The answer to last weeks puzzle is that probably I'm going to be home for Christmas! (using the lyrics to the Christmas song (I'll be home for Christmas) President Parrela will probably send us home on the 23rd of December which means that Ill arrive on the 24th on Christmas Eve! Elder Sargent (MTC companion, we are the only two Americans who have this visa problem and will be leaving at the same time) as I said is the executive secretary of our mission so he is in charge of buying all of the passages for people going home etc so he is keeping me in the know with the situation and so this is the most likely thing that will happen he said. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">We bought pizzas one night when it was Elder Belleville´s (behind me) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">sister's </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">first night in the MTC here in Brasil.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Also I'm doing great here in Santo Ângelo. We had a baptism this past week of a young women named Ana Paula whose been waiting a long time to be baptized. Her parents came too which was an awesome support for her and the baptismal service went smoothly. The sisters from our ward and I sang a special musical number at the closing that went great. This week on Friday we get the news if anyone will be transferred. It's super weird to think that I only have 3 transfers left on the mission and if they pass by like this one has then já era! (its already over) </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk-DTNb4SUSB9wI2NuCiJPVnfuTYXDS6eppLZpfw20ZjjnOUdA-2buETk5T_dZN6d00XK8oDkGLbgHs9ifFhyphenhyphent-BTj8INCyBhJoSrOaCxS8lZoJIBY5GIzMe7Q28b8L9ofmCtkjI7ScrLJ/s1600/IMG_2115.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk-DTNb4SUSB9wI2NuCiJPVnfuTYXDS6eppLZpfw20ZjjnOUdA-2buETk5T_dZN6d00XK8oDkGLbgHs9ifFhyphenhyphent-BTj8INCyBhJoSrOaCxS8lZoJIBY5GIzMe7Q28b8L9ofmCtkjI7ScrLJ/s400/IMG_2115.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> traditional after baptism xis</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTL9N8sbmOmg7NkUWPSm9aw7SIjs4zSmQ0dd2SqtiVmw2UDo3CAzjxVNJZ4F3koOnOD2wsrLuawdR4oPXcC7dmbHiOVahNvulXWq0Za-eXeoSeD-UDBPfPDqb5oDv32JQV1Rtiz1tx9IZQ/s1600/IMG_2107.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTL9N8sbmOmg7NkUWPSm9aw7SIjs4zSmQ0dd2SqtiVmw2UDo3CAzjxVNJZ4F3koOnOD2wsrLuawdR4oPXcC7dmbHiOVahNvulXWq0Za-eXeoSeD-UDBPfPDqb5oDv32JQV1Rtiz1tx9IZQ/s400/IMG_2107.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"> Us, the missionaries in Santo Ângelo ward</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">And here are the lyrics and a rough translation of our mission hymn that I sang:</span><br />
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Do coração do Sul (From the heart of the South)</div>
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Ao Rio Uruguai (to the Uruguay River)</div>
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Com saudades lembramos os pampas sem fim (We fondly remember the rolling hills without end)</div>
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Sob o céu deste Sul do Brasil. (under the sky of South Brasil)</div>
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{ Refrão }</div>
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Não há, não há noite mais azul, azul (Theres no night more blue)</div>
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Do que as noites do Rio Grande do Sul. (than the nights of Rio Grande do Sul)</div>
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Não há, não há noite mais azul, azul (Theres no night more blue)</div>
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Do que as noites do Rio Grande do Sul. (than the nights of Rio Grande do Sul)</div>
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Se ouve ao longe o vozear do multirão (You can hear in the distance the voices of the crowd)</div>
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A gauchada toda canta uma canção. (a bunch of gaúchos all sing a song)</div>
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Desce a garoa como um véu no coração, (the mist falls like a veil in your heart)</div>
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Todos se apressam acender o seu fogão. (Everyone hurrys to stoke the fire oven)</div>
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Eis que a grande obra já começou. (Behold a great work has already begun)</div>
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Fé, esperença, caridade e amor (Faith, hope, charity and love)</div>
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Fazem-nos prontos para a ceifa de Deus, (prepare us for the harvest of God)</div>
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E salvação trazer aos escholidos seus. (and salvation bring to his chosen)</div>
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{ Refrão }</div>
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Não há, não há noite mais azul, azul (Theres no night more blue)</div>
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Do que as noites do Rio Grande do Sul. (than the nights of Rio Grande do Sul)</div>
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Não há, não há noite mais azul, azul (Theres no night more blue)</div>
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Do que as noites do Rio Grande do Sul. (than the nights of Rio Grande do Sul)</div>
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Nós soldados do Senhor (We soldiers of the Lord)</div>
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Batalhamos sem cessar (battle without stopping)</div>
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Reunindo o rebanho do Salvador (reuniting the heard of the Savior)</div>
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E a luz ao gaúcho levar. (and to bring the light to the gaúcho)</div>
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Santa Maria,</div>
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amada Missão, (beloved mission)</div>
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Nos ensina a alcançar exaltação. (you teach us to reach exaltation)</div>
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But yea that's about it haha I'm excited that the next time I see everyone it'll be in person! So have a great week everyone, hugs and love from down here in Brasil.</div>
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Elder Pierce</div>
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<b>Brasilian Father's Day (Skype Pics):</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7HZJk7nrdNz2dResRmdeAoqEGz79sYcma39M6ZkFUt2Uh7e8C1XBwv-IDHlEqMNpD5ppgdzLpgcg-Kts9PPYQ8FoqzoJSQRYxEGoreT7E4aaMh6fSlnvTJQ7-NO7RBF583ldQcPcaVemq/s1600/IMG_2121.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7HZJk7nrdNz2dResRmdeAoqEGz79sYcma39M6ZkFUt2Uh7e8C1XBwv-IDHlEqMNpD5ppgdzLpgcg-Kts9PPYQ8FoqzoJSQRYxEGoreT7E4aaMh6fSlnvTJQ7-NO7RBF583ldQcPcaVemq/s320/IMG_2121.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
me the fourth time trying to install skype on the other laptop- Frustration!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjS1gAX8Pq_HC0VSi6aP0oa3AOKK120fLIEHgFt2uWOGAS__fpjsmqBhImw-op0b9lOUlhhkB1SN9fNTMqt_Y_uJTtLpnLYBP1rkr7knhMBagGQWDBhdBoNIBMvrF29Wp5AG4_viIZU9_B/s1600/IMG_8248.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjS1gAX8Pq_HC0VSi6aP0oa3AOKK120fLIEHgFt2uWOGAS__fpjsmqBhImw-op0b9lOUlhhkB1SN9fNTMqt_Y_uJTtLpnLYBP1rkr7knhMBagGQWDBhdBoNIBMvrF29Wp5AG4_viIZU9_B/s320/IMG_8248.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Some of the skype gang<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBtGDMDT-OGFyYbTpVtG9h53PCfY82v48_DFLlT_90E72UNo3gUHLJzm9XiWcbhTWcMOpv25xgh5RKcNIIxcK2dY_oOgeI2cXmK_QtnsRGl9EfizbNGBdjixs7BBQKycx6kDBotuM_6J9V/s1600/IMG_8249.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBtGDMDT-OGFyYbTpVtG9h53PCfY82v48_DFLlT_90E72UNo3gUHLJzm9XiWcbhTWcMOpv25xgh5RKcNIIxcK2dY_oOgeI2cXmK_QtnsRGl9EfizbNGBdjixs7BBQKycx6kDBotuM_6J9V/s320/IMG_8249.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie9Rw4fe2KstwjIBmpx0nIdCIssqaEMvgxcJR-q_1OiRbI4opjMksC-VSa7JfMZg-Z7OBpiq1O-S7oo5QpZbVjxXMn7pKo0g62dNtb8TnEwyfx_tQEkF8rEDG4zGRcRKtBVXFIC3SJIsS7/s1600/IMG_8250.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie9Rw4fe2KstwjIBmpx0nIdCIssqaEMvgxcJR-q_1OiRbI4opjMksC-VSa7JfMZg-Z7OBpiq1O-S7oo5QpZbVjxXMn7pKo0g62dNtb8TnEwyfx_tQEkF8rEDG4zGRcRKtBVXFIC3SJIsS7/s320/IMG_8250.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b> </b> trying to remember words in English, haha</div>
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Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-68968535518333135202015-08-03T11:47:00.002-07:002015-08-03T11:47:31.018-07:00Time Flies When You're Working Hard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2eChYT2id5d2usRzyu71dsQmjrzwhmhTklxwJqET-_U4_E-IfmoS9U7G5EMeWAgeDKKFAgZHx86WwvIHolyD-oyFXR08R1VmjTmdJfGnJvJiYhUuYlboKBpqIQ7DzmwFJZVVUf6TXH1eW/s1600/IMG_2088.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2eChYT2id5d2usRzyu71dsQmjrzwhmhTklxwJqET-_U4_E-IfmoS9U7G5EMeWAgeDKKFAgZHx86WwvIHolyD-oyFXR08R1VmjTmdJfGnJvJiYhUuYlboKBpqIQ7DzmwFJZVVUf6TXH1eW/s640/IMG_2088.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b> O</b></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>ur district here in Santo Ângelo </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>8/3/2015</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">This transfer has been going by really quickly... but that is normal I guess. All of the older missionaries say that after 1 year and 6 months time just flies by. I am now another testimony to that. Elder Santos Araujo and I are working a lot down here and expect good results daqui a pouco (in just a bit). In our district meeting last week our district leader Elder Belleville, um grande amigo (a great friend), gave the treinamento about<i> D&C 4:2 "Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day." </i>He invited each of us to chose one of the four (heart, might, mind, or strength) this week and study how we could be better in that specific area. I really enjoyed my studies about strength. I feel that strength in this scripture closely relates to diligence so I focused my studies on the scriptures listed in PMG Ch 6 about the attributes of Christ on diligence. They are really great scriptures and there are many blessings to obtain through our diligent service to the Lord, and I hope y'all will like </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">them too.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span><a href="https://www.lds.org/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service/how-do-i-develop-christlike-attributes?lang=eng" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;" target="_blank">Preach My Gospel- Chapter 6: How Do I Develop Christlike Attributes?</a><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpxkxV_tI2585j-km2taSwsvO9Urve1aEejVXNKJcgu3cKs6O-WEsPfJzh3dP6o3BGWQGAvsI6u2U_eOKnqIXPhuSyopzl4IIhr8i7eANMArfi2UapA0sIfO4VQ3474JpHH_n8yo9hEbGw/s1600/IMG_2090.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpxkxV_tI2585j-km2taSwsvO9Urve1aEejVXNKJcgu3cKs6O-WEsPfJzh3dP6o3BGWQGAvsI6u2U_eOKnqIXPhuSyopzl4IIhr8i7eANMArfi2UapA0sIfO4VQ3474JpHH_n8yo9hEbGw/s400/IMG_2090.JPG" width="300" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Wednesday I was off to Santiago for another exchange. There wasn't a bus straight from Santo Ângelo to Santiago so I had to catch a bus first to São Luiz Gonzaga and wait there until then next bus came around to my destination. But it was alright to wait at the bus station for an hour or so because it gave time to do personal study. It was fun to talk with Elder Capistrano because he and Elder Alencar had met before the mission and so we talked a lot about that. And when I got the the apartment there it was funny because they said that they had the most bagual (wild, untamed, manly) bathroom in the mission. When I walked in it was all pink, hahaha (I forgot to take a picture). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">As always it's a bit exhausting to travel and such but I think this week I get to stay put here in Santo Ângelo. On Sunday we were invited into the combined youth class to help them answer questions that people ask about marriage etc. It was a great way for them to learn about the doctrine behind the little things that people always say like "I'm only going to have kids after I have my doctorate and house and everything" (just one example). But even we learned a little something in the class with the youth because the teacher was talking about her own experience about finding a husband. She said that when she saw the eyes of her future husband light up as he talked about his mission and how she could tell that he loved his experience and served the Lord well she knew that he was the one! Note taken. haha</span><br />
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Well family I am super excited to be able to skype with y'all this weekend! I'm sure grateful for Brazilian Fathers Day haha. But before I go I might have some more great news to share when we talk! Here's a scrambled up tip, let's see if you can figure it out:</div>
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I TONIGHT EVEN DO OF IM USUALLY LOVE I PLACE MORE DREAMING THAN A.</div>
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LONG I I ITS ALTHOUGH BACK PROMISE A ROAD AND YOU KNOW...</div>
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(all caps to not give away first words, each sentence is scrambled separately)</div>
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Love you all and until very soon!</div>
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Elder Pierce</div>
Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-56090514342054160952015-08-03T11:26:00.000-07:002015-08-03T11:26:54.868-07:00Brazilian Father's Day!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk2KlErrfNzRK8166-oOEQZMyu48KoOY4sCug1o43CMPv_GkiG5Z5gZg9zyyZMEffe3B4JGR56SUhUO0tYSWclzNOlF1-dJVJbVvUEHbG64MZcootrVVzLgYX3xgNWu7ZNCoPVttABm3QV/s1600/IMG_2068.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk2KlErrfNzRK8166-oOEQZMyu48KoOY4sCug1o43CMPv_GkiG5Z5gZg9zyyZMEffe3B4JGR56SUhUO0tYSWclzNOlF1-dJVJbVvUEHbG64MZcootrVVzLgYX3xgNWu7ZNCoPVttABm3QV/s640/IMG_2068.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b> </b></span><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">On the bus... again</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>7/27/2015</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">SURPRISE!!! The 9th of August is Father's Day here in Brasil and we are now authorized to Skype our families on this day too! Honestly I didn't believe it when I first read the email but its legit! I don't know if this is a thing just in our mission or others too but whatevs. So prepare the Skype session on the 9th family! I'm quite excited to be able to see y'all again so soon :)</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">Me with Elder Cardoso the district leader in Santa Rosa </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Other than that the week went by well. On Tuesday I went back to Santa Rosa to do an exchange with the district leader there, accompany their district meeting, and do 2 more baptismal interviews for them. We had some great experiences and a day with baptismal interviews is always fun. Also it was cool to see the idea that I took to the mission council, to accompany the district meetings better giving everyone a half sheet with guided practices to do and additional studies on said topic, being applied in their district meeting that I went to. It was a bit exhausting to catch the bus 6 am two days in a row there and back but it's gotta be done. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">Santa Rosa is where a kid's TV program star named Xuxa (shusha) was born hence the <br />"rainia dos baixinhios" (queen of the shorties).<br /></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">This week I travel to San Tiago do do another exchange on Wednesday. I will be with the junior companion who arrived in the mission at the same time with my son Elder Alencar so that will be fun and Elder Santos Araujo will be with the District Leader back in Santo Ângelo. This week Elder Santos Araujo and I had many great experiences. We are working with a great investigator who actually lives in a small neighboring city called Entre-Ijuís. She is a college student whose member aunt from Portugal came to visit and brought her to church about 2 months ago. She received an answer to her prayer that the church was true and she knows that she is totally prepared to be baptized. But the frustrating part is that even knowing all that she still is a bit scared to be baptized. It's more of a fear that she will mess up after the baptism and that she still depends on her dad to drive her to Santo Ângelo to come to church. But I know that all will go well, just prayer and patience, haha.</span><br />
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Love you family and see ya soon!</div>
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Elder Pierce</div>
Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-51330095983448277812015-07-20T09:22:00.000-07:002015-07-20T09:22:51.545-07:00The Secret to Success<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b> Zone Conference</b><br />
<b>7/20/2015</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">Break time at the zone conference</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Hello to all after another week! The most exciting thing that happened this past week had to be the Zone Conference last Tuesday. It's always fun to see past friends and companions and a great opportunity to hear from Presidente and Sister Parrela. One of the things that stuck out to me from the conference was this question: "What was the secret to the success of Jesus Christ as the perfect missionary?" In the end the answer is kind of obvious but it was one of those mind-blowing, right in front of you moments, haha, that Christ only did the will of the Father and that he was exactly obedient. (John 5:30, 6:30, 7:16-17, & Luke 22:42) The same stuff as always shed in a new light, cool :)</span><br />
<b>Seeing Old Friends:</b><br />
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E. Sargent<br />
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E. Gois<br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> E. Lailson Silva</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">At our apartment after the conference we also had the elders from San Tiago sleep there to wait for the bus the next morning. So obviously we took advantage of the opportunity and got xis with everyone.</span><br />
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Xis- Yummm!<br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Anyway the rest of our week is a big blur in my mind... Saturday night Bishop called me and said "hey Elder, did anyone tell you that you have a talk tomorrow?".. </span>umm<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> nope </span>haha<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">. But it's all good, we are prepared for this as missionaries. I talked about how we receive revelation through prayer, scripture study, and church attendance. Pretty easy considering I only had to say the stuff that I teach to people pretty much every day. </span><br />
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Well sorry for the short letter but I love you all and hope that your week goes well!</div>
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Elder Pierce<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhryx8fS8YLG9SktunTGBYEBHksDxk6Nzhunw-MhLdDOJvVc_u_KOLPGpSvbZqGeoXJ-l9-CdFGXScY9EYDALTXSLojrJ2bB90IrYu961p2SLhUMiIhdewk4ai-6ABA7_q80Y2oydjoF7k4/s1600/15+pancake+breakfast.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhryx8fS8YLG9SktunTGBYEBHksDxk6Nzhunw-MhLdDOJvVc_u_KOLPGpSvbZqGeoXJ-l9-CdFGXScY9EYDALTXSLojrJ2bB90IrYu961p2SLhUMiIhdewk4ai-6ABA7_q80Y2oydjoF7k4/s320/15+pancake+breakfast.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">Pancake breakfast that one of the other elders made for us one morning :)</span></td></tr>
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Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-33159594207674636342015-07-13T09:08:00.000-07:002015-07-13T09:08:54.265-07:00Zone Leader Stuff<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b> Gaucho Legal</b></span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">I bought these boots, all I need now is the hat to finish off my gaucho set. :)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>7/13/2015</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">My first week here in Santo Ângelo as zone leader went well. My companion Elder Santos Araujo and I have a lot of stuff to do. We have a "good cop (me), bad cop (him)" relationship haha with everyone, other missionaries investigators etc., haha. When Elder Santos Araujo left the CTM I came in so he has 2 more weeks than I do in the mission which makes him my first companion who has more than a year on the mission when I served with them. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">My companion Elder Santos Araujo</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">As a zone leader we don't have junior or senior companion so we just work things out as we go... so that's interesting. Here's some of the stuff we got to do last week. Tuesday after the 6 hour bus ride from Livramento to Santa Maria was the Mission Council (coolness!) where all of the zone leaders and leaders of the sisters get together and we receive training from the assistants, Sister Parrela and Presidente. A big part of what they told us to help our missionaries was to 1) be happy and 2) believe we can baptize. Then after the trainings everyone sits in a bit circle and we discuss ideas of how to improve the mission. I presented an idea of how to better accompany our district/zone meetings with specific goals and guided additional studies. After all the meetings were over Elder Santos Araujo and I got on a bus to Santo Ângelo, another 4 hours, and we got home late and tired. </span><br />
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The bus to Santa Rosa<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">selfie #aloneonthebus</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Next week we have Zone Conference (meeting with various zones back in Santa Maria </span>ahh<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">! more bus rides) so as the zone leaders we had to contact the bus company that will leave from here in the city. We organized all of the information of the missionaries that will travel with us and had to communicate to everyone when we will leave and from where etc. The bus will pass through here, </span>Ijuí<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> and then Cruz Alta before heading down to Santa Maria (not to mention having to do all that in reverse on the way back -ugh). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">As a zone leaders we also do the baptismal interviews for our district leaders. A bit about Zone Santo Ângelo: its huge! The zone covers 4 cities, here, Santa Rosa, San Tiago, and São Luiz Gonzaga. So Friday I had to travel to Santa Rosa alone to go do a baptismal interview for the district leader there. I left 6 from here got there 7. Ran and did the interview: all good. Then went to the district leader's house and gave him some instruction on how to do the paper work etc. because he is new. Then ran back to the bus station at 9 to get home around 10. A bit exhausting but it's all part of the deal. My area here has had some great elders pass through so we have a lot of work to do. Including we had a baptism this week of a boy named Sandro :) Irmão Guilherme is his neighbor and has been working with Sandro's family to bring them to church, literally we are only helping him do his own missionary work as a member. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">This week will be super busy too so I look forward to getting to tell y'all all about it.</span><br />
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Love and hugs! have a great week</div>
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Elder Pierce<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGj8UMYxq-oJIqK30Dqw8WWEfK2yGwElm2tcvRSBr0PWqEytQPSYkJF40OfWplHq1Risnm18zNEmTe_B7o2WPVgwsaYPYTGqWrLdyqxzVYg066h0J9RmUcjIOdWJCiXXEXNWj9f-s9TKA9/s1600/02+mission+council.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGj8UMYxq-oJIqK30Dqw8WWEfK2yGwElm2tcvRSBr0PWqEytQPSYkJF40OfWplHq1Risnm18zNEmTe_B7o2WPVgwsaYPYTGqWrLdyqxzVYg066h0J9RmUcjIOdWJCiXXEXNWj9f-s9TKA9/s400/02+mission+council.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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before the mission council when all the zone leaders and sister trainers </div>
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(? I dont know the name in English... its Líder Treinador das Sisteres in Portuguese) </div>
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sit in a big circle and discuss ideas to inprove the mission</div>
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Baptism of Sandro (Brother Guilherme (translated would be William) performed the ordinance)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">traditional pizza after a baptism</span></td></tr>
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Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-3938973769841114562015-07-06T12:15:00.000-07:002015-07-13T09:09:09.872-07:00An Impactful Week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgWHhTrLvybsKo94l_jhc_Ks2Ha-VwTnFMOZW5QBJkat0ZxY_DF7TatyIAgppcGJeVVoweWtXIKjSt71KJwZ2Gbb6esA0IqvU8FvS_Bqc_aBOSdImTIlP29n2o98j86rN-EI7x96MoW0m-/s1600/53+scripture+covers+for+alencar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgWHhTrLvybsKo94l_jhc_Ks2Ha-VwTnFMOZW5QBJkat0ZxY_DF7TatyIAgppcGJeVVoweWtXIKjSt71KJwZ2Gbb6esA0IqvU8FvS_Bqc_aBOSdImTIlP29n2o98j86rN-EI7x96MoW0m-/s640/53+scripture+covers+for+alencar.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<b> </b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">I made those scripture covers/ box things for Elder Alencar</span><br />
<b>7/6/2015</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Well family this week was full of impactful events that I will share with y'all.</span><br />
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Monday wonderful magical Mom activated my card! So that ended a bit of the drought and I'm gonna try this week to finish up some of my gaúcho get up because the clothes and stuff here in Livramento are cheaper than anywhere else.</div>
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Tuesday was our District meeting where we played my board game. We reviewed chapter 9 of PMG and then when they stopped on a space they drew a sorted practice situation about one of the principles in chapter 9 all about finding new people to teach. I think it worked out great because it turned practices which are usually really lame into being fun! Everyone said that they wished there was more time to play :)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhouw2g3Ko-jsITE8pGnjAy7cCSmEg2Qor0rxdDuWuoJvHRh90EIlpiWMdhM8yNyTaq5PBxE0wGjUqfLYSuoeUU3vzTPahJ_EXZwAeaf12k-TP2yVx8YMj8W61NvJQzhNNgAxdrX8QQxmlU/s1600/54+making+the+board+game.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhouw2g3Ko-jsITE8pGnjAy7cCSmEg2Qor0rxdDuWuoJvHRh90EIlpiWMdhM8yNyTaq5PBxE0wGjUqfLYSuoeUU3vzTPahJ_EXZwAeaf12k-TP2yVx8YMj8W61NvJQzhNNgAxdrX8QQxmlU/s400/54+making+the+board+game.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Making the game for our District Training Meeting<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwkNB9-0IPv_qqW27ZyRUKQPxDiO6k13elEm5OUMzYvXt3GCv7EAdxcxf935QUtvksWquHLs_uiF9unCZyVCoNJrmvWx7A-9PXrX9eMLEPKdnJcYRS-AxKQE2m4Z4JnkccVrjZZdKkKGtj/s1600/55+board+game.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwkNB9-0IPv_qqW27ZyRUKQPxDiO6k13elEm5OUMzYvXt3GCv7EAdxcxf935QUtvksWquHLs_uiF9unCZyVCoNJrmvWx7A-9PXrX9eMLEPKdnJcYRS-AxKQE2m4Z4JnkccVrjZZdKkKGtj/s400/55+board+game.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
(like the First Presidency game pieces/ haha)<br />
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Playing the game! :) <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-pOnIMJnnDVHfUoGUwJvzOEj-QiVLpnhu486ZBelZY4lVRU0ixjPbXxY43vspzKatQ3RD0JXT1GeobdQF5Z8iA7dCg7mPekRqvrDCFNxdopa_KC9JFnqel2ooo3j81MU-aP-Jxe2eix9N/s1600/57+playing+the+game.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-pOnIMJnnDVHfUoGUwJvzOEj-QiVLpnhu486ZBelZY4lVRU0ixjPbXxY43vspzKatQ3RD0JXT1GeobdQF5Z8iA7dCg7mPekRqvrDCFNxdopa_KC9JFnqel2ooo3j81MU-aP-Jxe2eix9N/s400/57+playing+the+game.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Wednesday we had the opportunity to be the answer to a family's prayer. The family had been unable to buy food for a long time and without a word after we left the house Elder Alencar and I both knew what we had to do. We went straight to the store and returned to drop off what we could; basics like beans, rice, and eggs. And it worked out that they had left their door open and were in another room so we were able to slip in and leave the groceries on their table without a peep and then we were off.</div>
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Thursday I had the opportunity to do some baptismal interviews. It was an amazing spiritual experience to be able to explain to one of them about the importance of the commandments, the miracle that is repentance, and how the love of God is more powerful than all things. I was truly able to see how the spirit works through us to be able to serve his children and help them back home. God really does answer our prayers, we just need to listen and put our interests out of the way.</div>
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Friday morning when Elder Alencar and I were doing our weekly planning I got a call from President Parrela. He called to inform and congratulate me for my new call in the mission as a Zone Leader! I will<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtYzxq0Vh1r4j4O-7haEowNxz2YXTEVgPPbqHCEZ0Vm4ArfYqdW0S5uY_t1XjiEPi2ZGxdyYo0W5_2WzZ_tSllGFQ_FwLTEKSjW5bcGDDjieUlJjVoW7Ux6YYOk5Hve-0SK1Ld36FWyY9K/s1600/58+me+and+my+son.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtYzxq0Vh1r4j4O-7haEowNxz2YXTEVgPPbqHCEZ0Vm4ArfYqdW0S5uY_t1XjiEPi2ZGxdyYo0W5_2WzZ_tSllGFQ_FwLTEKSjW5bcGDDjieUlJjVoW7Ux6YYOk5Hve-0SK1Ld36FWyY9K/s400/58+me+and+my+son.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and my son!</td></tr>
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be transferred to Santo Angelo, everyone who I talk to says that it's a beautiful city and all the missionaries say that the ward there is really good. My companion and fellow zone leader will be Elder Santos Araujo from São Paulo I think. There were some mixed feelings about leaving here especially as Elder Alencar was about tearing up when I got the phone call and he knew I would leave but he'll be alright. His step-dad will be another Elder who actually is already here in our district who only moved to the neighboring area, weird but cool haha (the same elder who is leaning over playing the game in the pictures). I also couldn't help but laugh when I remembered a talk from general conference: "Unfortunately, there was a time in my life when I was motivated by titles and authority. It really began innocently. As I was preparing to serve a full-time mission, my older brother was made a zone leader in his mission. I heard so many positive things said about him that I couldn’t help but want those things said about me. I hoped for and may have even prayed for a similar position..." - Elder Ringwood. But I know that the brothers won't do the same haha ;)</div>
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The rest of the week was more of a blur and so I'll leave it at that but I love you all and I hope y'all have a good week!</div>
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Elder Pierce</div>
Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-60576798146517271922015-06-29T08:36:00.001-07:002015-06-29T08:36:14.538-07:00Relying on the Lord<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtp8wm32qBPelScjab5Xm8gmRT84upVsBPgKvZYVcYH4mj1ZSgqepqF2gfcPRqFuOo9CDmtFNHqy0UpiUI35eOSh81ahuXdtZFAshZuyTFKFZv092l2xdQ5YOea6kEq3nE8lzwJ-Gljjwt/s1600/51+name+tags.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtp8wm32qBPelScjab5Xm8gmRT84upVsBPgKvZYVcYH4mj1ZSgqepqF2gfcPRqFuOo9CDmtFNHqy0UpiUI35eOSh81ahuXdtZFAshZuyTFKFZv092l2xdQ5YOea6kEq3nE8lzwJ-Gljjwt/s640/51+name+tags.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>6/29/2015</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Hello all! Humm... so just to start things off this week got really hot out of nowhere. It was actually really nice 21-24 C (70s F) But when it should be getting colder I felt that it was hot. On the contrary Elder Alencar has been loving it because in Ceará the weather stays around 24 C (75 F) in the coldest of winters and 34 C (94 F)the rest of the time. So he gets to feel a bit more at home which is needed sometimes for a new missionary to get your mind off some of the stress. Thankfully (at least for me) today and tomorrow bring in the rain and then it's back to cooler temperatures which I've been waiting for. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">This week is the end of the transfer so I'm not too sure how I feel about that. I've got an estimated 60% chance to stay or 40% to leave by my reckoning. President Parrela likes to give the new missionaries Step-Fathers (when another missionary finishes the training), but there's no use in worrying about that till Friday. I would like to stay here and finish the training of Elder Alencar and help see some more progress here in the area with our investigators but we'll see what the Lord has planned. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_DDCIirq8GMourcvSmiGNLkFkXCTOTQD0oi7qokxQrScOQ-MlSq62qmLm4jzYnh-OoD_A7xs5WlueM9TyoIIya4XevdHpYJSRUT61OUGyEvrW_Zqaafz2SS579ni7W5nNh_RDeziaeDez/s1600/52+silly+with+plaquetas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_DDCIirq8GMourcvSmiGNLkFkXCTOTQD0oi7qokxQrScOQ-MlSq62qmLm4jzYnh-OoD_A7xs5WlueM9TyoIIya4XevdHpYJSRUT61OUGyEvrW_Zqaafz2SS579ni7W5nNh_RDeziaeDez/s400/52+silly+with+plaquetas.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Having fun with our plaquetas (name tags)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">A cool experience that we had: we got a referral of a less active family that was wanting visits from the missionaries again last week. When we went there the wife was full of questions and doubts about the Book of Mormon, the church, eternal families and all sorts of stuff so we just tried our best to answer what we could. We also left them 3 Néfi 11 to read to try and help them rekindle their faith connecting the Book of Mormon with Jesus Christ. When we returned we were all prepared to answer the unanswerable and and use scriptures from the 4 corners of the earth and whatnot. But when we got there they just said "oh we know it's all true elders we just need to plan better to wake up on Sunday to go to church, that's the only thing between us and coming back." and it was a "huh? could you repeat that?" situation which was a nice change from the tumultuous lives of our investigators who seem to get more complicated every week. But hey if it wasn't difficult it wouldn't be worth it :) This week for district meeting I'm going to focus on our main need to find more new investigators. So I'm gonna make a board game with sorted practice situations on the various pathways to help everyone feel more natural in finding new investigators, that should be fun, haha pictures to come.</span><br />
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Until next week! Love you all and know you're in my prayers :)</div>
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Elder Pierce<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjIMgJW3q_1E7PtYY9c4Ed9LceprXkMn6Eu7dACCpfkeFiMCoYwsO0XaBo_KRSim8qy0IHxCoOT6jJCD8rvq18ftOy2dtR19PDkeN8HWioNj7C8spvP8xgFKJ53fGaHzr8FVfJQxQiodv1/s1600/50+E+Chuman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjIMgJW3q_1E7PtYY9c4Ed9LceprXkMn6Eu7dACCpfkeFiMCoYwsO0XaBo_KRSim8qy0IHxCoOT6jJCD8rvq18ftOy2dtR19PDkeN8HWioNj7C8spvP8xgFKJ53fGaHzr8FVfJQxQiodv1/s400/50+E+Chuman.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">divisão (e</span>xchanges) with Elder Chuman</td></tr>
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Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4040475724151134941.post-9854582804130770852015-06-29T07:08:00.000-07:002015-06-29T07:08:14.790-07:00Run Around Then Relax... and Run Around Again<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhha1vMEk2ly1bin4i2PVabN-e-OB0BJS7CuX74gikrCVaT5owqhxDEiKwfgK5QqHnMheWTrrpCjqOpjWUT7W9cQR-eWavixAux1oBOSy0Xg8YC2m0whik_pyrJSVrxhPwlwlABgKR63Gi-/s1600/44+Ana+and+Gringo+the+dog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhha1vMEk2ly1bin4i2PVabN-e-OB0BJS7CuX74gikrCVaT5owqhxDEiKwfgK5QqHnMheWTrrpCjqOpjWUT7W9cQR-eWavixAux1oBOSy0Xg8YC2m0whik_pyrJSVrxhPwlwlABgKR63Gi-/s640/44+Ana+and+Gringo+the+dog.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b> </b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">I found Sheila's cousin at our investigators Thais and Julio's house. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">His name is "Gringo" because of the blue eyes (me and Ana- Thais and Julio's daughter)</span></div>
<b>6/22/2015</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Today (Monday, 22nd of June) makes 1 year and 5 months that I've been on the mission... I'm starting to feel old haha. Also it's now been 2 month that I'm here in Livramento, which is weird because I still feel like I'm new here, time really flies by. This week felt really rushed because we had two different exchanges that I had to do. Exchanges are always from before lunch one day to before lunch the next day and these 24 hours feel like a weird time warp. It's almost like that day doesn't count in my mind or something so the week goes by really fast. There are some things I like about exchanges but in some ways they really just make things more difficult. For example exchanges can go one of two ways, we will have a day full of miracles, teaching everyone planned for finding new people and seeing real progress in our investigators. Or nothing will go as planned and everything falls through just because your with another person. Thankfully the two exchanges I had went the first way this time. I was in Elder Banks' area on Tuesday then on Thursday Elder Edwards was in my area so the miracles were evenly spread out haha. It's interesting to have the chance to influence the work of another through my assessments and suggestions as a leader. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsfBAl4SU0a2W7B9a_wZUt6u3dRniVrBpZXDt1Fjsngiia0dUi1FQETfrH4LRMah_HGRJYblhQZXQTIMdTDfwznNH3yMohZMYCKLn36u-ejsT-aumcWAqbtMLJ6PyzE94EOGwg_6YjV_zM/s1600/42+E+Banks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsfBAl4SU0a2W7B9a_wZUt6u3dRniVrBpZXDt1Fjsngiia0dUi1FQETfrH4LRMah_HGRJYblhQZXQTIMdTDfwznNH3yMohZMYCKLn36u-ejsT-aumcWAqbtMLJ6PyzE94EOGwg_6YjV_zM/s400/42+E+Banks.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exchange with Elder Banks</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu92NfCnF_DA15sYQLh03KnmCbgEMZnwhPgC2ueXNovzuz6kk0E_RnJarx5BT1hOPcKVEuiZ-eCG_0aN1_gMujq7HUEglrMUmAQie6tO01D2hbdLDkFMMRm6MIKfNo2Tocw6H7dR2J9oPA/s1600/43+E+Edwards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu92NfCnF_DA15sYQLh03KnmCbgEMZnwhPgC2ueXNovzuz6kk0E_RnJarx5BT1hOPcKVEuiZ-eCG_0aN1_gMujq7HUEglrMUmAQie6tO01D2hbdLDkFMMRm6MIKfNo2Tocw6H7dR2J9oPA/s400/43+E+Edwards.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exchange with Elder Edwards</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">I've been blessed with a district who works hard and is always </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">looking to become better so that makes things a lot easier. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px;">In our area we found a cousin of a member who is 16 and I thought was already baptised but 4 years ago his Mom didn't give permission and now she is letting him go to church again. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWQ__QBSAaGOuZ0DQaenQkt-tJm4xsjiwgGVG8TgYpElMXI395P0aSyb5grR68nKekFqtJDYZj5Dpu4GDL2pKNaluUtEHUa-UCyk6bBbgM8t3yTSLQp84Pu_UAW_eEv3pRXUMeKfOz7rN1/s1600/46+blue+eyes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWQ__QBSAaGOuZ0DQaenQkt-tJm4xsjiwgGVG8TgYpElMXI395P0aSyb5grR68nKekFqtJDYZj5Dpu4GDL2pKNaluUtEHUa-UCyk6bBbgM8t3yTSLQp84Pu_UAW_eEv3pRXUMeKfOz7rN1/s200/46+blue+eyes.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gringo</td></tr>
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No one else tried after that so we asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said "yea, it just depends on my mom" So that is definitely a miracle and we are going to help him out in that aspect :) On Saturday we were invited to a churrasco at Thais and Julio's house (our investigators). It was super good and I even found a long lost cousin of our dog Sheila! They call him Gringo because of his blue eyes haha. This was our moment of "relax" in the week but then everything went crazy again the next morning trying to get everyone to church on Sundays. The rest of <span style="background-color: white;">missionary </span>work seems easy compared to getting people up in the morning to go to church and this is the only thing that stands in between many of our investigators and taking the next step to baptism. It was a bit disappointing that Leandro and Fernanda weren't able to make it this week but for sure next week will work out! All in the Lord's time, and with active patience.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWmllPGV5JVlXYXK4ODBRaG9Pe4Tauz73L2CEzKbfuJmzqi-0EBF-QSg0LdrH1VfODW42PMbJePl3nwWDYL8ftG1dyzvTpDXsTF-dMTZcNhaQGbzJva1ifaS9PtsDneSG7UDiSB0_P2Ms9/s1600/45+Alencar+and+Gringo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWmllPGV5JVlXYXK4ODBRaG9Pe4Tauz73L2CEzKbfuJmzqi-0EBF-QSg0LdrH1VfODW42PMbJePl3nwWDYL8ftG1dyzvTpDXsTF-dMTZcNhaQGbzJva1ifaS9PtsDneSG7UDiSB0_P2Ms9/s400/45+Alencar+and+Gringo.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Alencar chillin with Gringo</td></tr>
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Love you all and have a great week! And a shout out the all the family back at the family reunion! Extra hugs around and PARABENS! (congratulations) Grandpa for your Birthday!</div>
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Elder Pierce<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEsOV0mVA9SGxLOqIlKb8J0lKW2mBAMqOt-ripr5Amv-VAa2SgegpQMR6OrBVvfeAcrdD5MgsKRKAaTjkffPIBUFnwj5pyx2psBLSq3UK7bb9vDHkqiexYwuTazMLdOwM9hocbhpkN9bRb/s1600/47+appetizers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEsOV0mVA9SGxLOqIlKb8J0lKW2mBAMqOt-ripr5Amv-VAa2SgegpQMR6OrBVvfeAcrdD5MgsKRKAaTjkffPIBUFnwj5pyx2psBLSq3UK7bb9vDHkqiexYwuTazMLdOwM9hocbhpkN9bRb/s400/47+appetizers.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
in the circle eating appetizers at the churrasco<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiStx3W8zxJt9Nvr5TM4OlXAIj-7Sd1cqEGTHxr790O0muLpAKvLzVnCzYwomj9-uYmvv9T6sSEb4M4N7SrwzMpJ7Cj4Wge-WGSDQSUkeLxXBnlc8drm1NT8-VXcRrw8uhd1nzKlu7qkRhyphenhyphen/s1600/48+Thais+and+Julio+family.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiStx3W8zxJt9Nvr5TM4OlXAIj-7Sd1cqEGTHxr790O0muLpAKvLzVnCzYwomj9-uYmvv9T6sSEb4M4N7SrwzMpJ7Cj4Wge-WGSDQSUkeLxXBnlc8drm1NT8-VXcRrw8uhd1nzKlu7qkRhyphenhyphen/s400/48+Thais+and+Julio+family.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
the group Ana, Thais, Julio, us, then in the back are Julios nephew and his wife<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinuEhyQw97Je7sCDSR4wQwH6XoAdJpIo_pOmAkyv9ai0jnQiD-wgRtym0bEaBxXrJMCjKKJZNkm-JC8wTQuGB4QaiTVuo_qFPuxYFUKGSY-5Lzi8KKxYer3Den7QqGQ2jJpS8QUBpPapYB/s1600/49+churrasco+pit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinuEhyQw97Je7sCDSR4wQwH6XoAdJpIo_pOmAkyv9ai0jnQiD-wgRtym0bEaBxXrJMCjKKJZNkm-JC8wTQuGB4QaiTVuo_qFPuxYFUKGSY-5Lzi8KKxYer3Den7QqGQ2jJpS8QUBpPapYB/s400/49+churrasco+pit.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">the churrasco pit</span></td></tr>
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Elder Riley Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307465087040631008noreply@blogger.com0