Keep on Rolling!

                                                                         Zone Meeting
10/19/2015
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...                                         
                                                                         Pancakes

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.

                                                Elder Long getting funky with his horn

                                             he was doing beat box horn style hahaha

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

Elder Smith (on the left int he photo)
said that he met Noah out at BYU, small world 

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 :)

Love you all family!, sorry the email was short I hope this week finds you all well!

Elder Pierce

                                                the weather is getting better...ish haha

Hotdogs with the Elders in São Luiz Gonzaga

6 Days and Counting...

                    Us at the Zone Meeting with Santiago and São Luiz Gonzaga (half of the zone)                  
10/12/2015

Hello family! I have to give a shout out for the super exciting news: PARABÉNS Elder Noah Pierce in your call to the 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 :) 

Anyway so this morning was the first time that we saw the sun in about a week, and it didnt even stay too long.

                                                  (this is the view out of our room's window)

 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.

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. 

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.

Love you family! and I hope everyone has a good week :) 

Elder Pierce 

                           Elder Longo and I walking in the street on our way back from Santiago

                                view of the street from the front window of the bus in Santiago

 it went dark again and in this pic it's raining but you can't see it, haha

Conference Overload, too good!

We always do a big group shout "BAH-TCHÊ-ZAR" 

(Pres. Parrela in the corner there)

10/5/2015

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

meu companheiro now Elder Longo

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. 

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. 

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 

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 :)

Love you all and have a great week

Elder Pierce 

  Pizza before Zone Conference Tuesday with the elders from Santa Rosa

                                       Pics with former companions at the zone meeting:

                                                                       Lailson Silva

                                                                             Araujo

                                                                      Santos Araujo

Gois

Wait for the Pillar of Light

                                                                   Farewell to a friend!
9/28/2015

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. 

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

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.

                                     Read more about the prophet Joseph Smith's First Vision

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!

Love you all family I pray for you every day :)

Elder Pierce
                                                      Despedida (Farewell) Elder Navas

Dreams, Miracles and... It's the Final Count Down! (de de de dee...)

                  Here we are when Elder Halverson came for the exchange in 

"Soccer Team" pose

9/21/2015

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"

Elder Navas loves pizza, who are we to disagree?!?

(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. 

                                                       Epic Indoor Badminton Tournament

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 Irmã (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. 

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 :)

Love you all and have a great week!

Elder Pierce

                                                                           the district

this is our apartment building in the "center" or downtown

Thank Goodness for a Normal Week

9/14/2015

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. 

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. 

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. 

But yea I'll repent and send a bunch of pictures next week, Love y'all!

Elder Pierce 

I'm an Assassin!

                                                         Participating in the Mission Council
9/7/2015

Elder Navas  traveling again

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! 

Bus rides are the best, haha.

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!  Nothing is open and we convinced the lan-house (internet place) to open just for us this afternoon. 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. 

So yea sorry for the short email but I love you all and until next week!

Elder Pierce

We got creative and made pancakes.