WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE TODAY!!!

For some horrible reason we can only go once a year. It's because its out of our mission, but its only 30 minutes away. So this was quite the event. But because of the trip P-day is cut short so I don't have much time to email.

Lynsey wrote me and told me that she loved reading my blog and would love it more if there were more to read. So apologize to her that this week will be even scarcer than the others, but next week I will do my best to give a sweeping Tolkien landscape of my mission area and three pages of the background on each investigator and cool member. Something like that.

The fellow who walked up to us and said he wanted to join our church, cannot join in the near future because of his felony probation for a DUI last year. But he's a very humble guy and is okay with it. He knows quite a bit from past investigation and already has a strong testimony of the priesthood. Thank heavens.

Yep. I mean, lots happened this week but I don't have time to report it. Sorry, I'm lame this week. BUT THE TEMPLE WAS AMAZING!!  Great experience.

From Michael's Mom:
For those who want to learn more about our temples - why we have them, what their purpose is, etc. - you can learn more at mormon.org here's a link to the FAQ section about temples.  It has a short summary, links to other temple questions and links to what real Mormons have to say about our temples.

http://mormon.org/faq/topic/temples/question/use-of-temples

Another Great Week for Elder Pierce

I had another great week! Found a fellow, a former investigator. He was investigating pretty extensively according to the record. We're still not sure why he was dropped, but when we went by his trailer he stepped right out and said he had been thinking about us and wanted to continue investigating, and ultimately wanted to join our church. So we invited him to a baptismal service later that week and church, and got the recent convert up the street from him to give him a ride. Getting to know him better we've found he's a solid investigator, 90% sure the church is true, wants to change his life and start a new leaf at the age of 50. So we gave him a baptismal date to work towards and will begin reteaching him the lessons and commitments to make sure everything's ship shape! Its a miracle!

And apparently, the lady we committed to baptism a few weeks ago, was the first person in Maple Valley zone to be committed to baptism in quite some time. Like, for a year. So there was quite a bit of fanfare about it and after people found out we saw an explosion of morale, and all these people are being found who were willing to commit to baptism. So that's pretty neato. Actually that's stupendous!!!!!! The Lord has used us to bless Maple Valley zone!

Stupendous Week!

This has been a stupendous week! Stupendous stupendous. My new companion is excellent: Elder B! We are taking Cedar River by storm! 

We began with a lesson with T. the one who was brought to church by her member daughter and had a great experience so she called us up to meet with us. We've taught two lessons with our recent convert, and the most recent one with Elder B. was at a members' home, where we committed her to baptism on Feb 8th on condition that she find out these things are true. And she came to church this week! And while here she found out the relief society president was an old friend from high school! So we have female fellowship now for our next lesson tomorrow! 

And also we were able to practice teaching the L. family, that part member family I keep talking about where the father is Jewish and the mother wants to get back into the groove of regular church and scripture study and FHE. So that's an interesting situation, but we were able to teach them the Plan of Salvation and Gospel of Jesus Christ in one lesson Saturday, and their two oldest daughters were paying close attention and asking questions about repentance and how we repent and it was really just a great lesson and the father was asking questions just to clarify things...he obviously has hang ups on Jesus Christ, and his wife was almost argumentative at some points with him about the meaning on the sacrifices in the old testament, because WE know they were obviously symbolic of Jesus Christ but he doesn't believe there's a connection. Anyway we invited them all to pray with sincerity to ask God if Jesus is the Christ necessary for the Plan of Salvation. And we're returning next Saturday to continue teaching!

We also had some success Sunday with visiting former investigators: the first fellow was a gentle guy smoking on his porch. I followed the spirit and ended up telling him that his recently deceased father is being taught by spirit missionaries like us in the spirit world and that he is being taught here so that he can eventually be baptized in proxy for his father. Yeah, I thought it was crazy too. But we got into a discussion about how he had been baptized by four different churches and is confused about which one is valid, so we invited him to let us come back and teach him about Joseph Smith's situation. He said (and he said it earnestly) that we should come back early spring because then his friends will be gone and it would be a good time to make good on our offer to help him in the yard. We're going to come back earlier though I think. Anyway he said our coming by has encouraged him to get back into reading the Bible every day, so that's something. 

And we met a former, a Physician's Assistant who has had a LOT of guidance from the spirit in her life, guiding her to different jobs where she is much happier and so she really recognizes his influence. She claims that she isn't ready to change her religion. Isn't ready to change it. Which is interesting. So we got talking and the spirit was very strong and she said she felt we'd been sent by God to uplift her, so we asked if there was another time we could visit and talk and she said 8:00 to 8:30 on weekdays, which is our HARDEST TIME TO FILL. So we're like Absolutely. So that was cool.

Yeah. And we've had dozens of experiences while tracting the streets, talking to people on the streets or on their doorsteps. It's been very good!

Go-Carts, Pool Tables & Geometry

Transfers are today! Elder I is getting shipped out, but I'm holding the fort in Cedar River. My companion will be an Elder B, so we'll see how it goes!

On the subject of go-carts Brother G, our favorite and most difficult inactive member, made a go-cart. While in a wheelchair. So that's one crazy story for you. We went in with his son D to clean out his living room because it is TRASHED, and it is hard on his physical and spiritual health, so we went in and managed to clean out about a third of it. The other two thirds D is saying will be moved out soon. I hope so. But we uncovered a great looking pool table, and Brother G, among seventy other things, is a very good pool player, so he challenged us to a game one evening, and I almost made the winning shot, because he taught me how to do the geometry to do a proper bank shot, and I banked the cue ball and knocked the 8-ball beautifully into the corner pocket, and we were like YEAH! And cheering.........while the cue ball slowly ricocheted into the opposing corner pocket. So Brother G technically still won.

Then we had an excellent Gospel conversation with him and invited him to stop smoking. He said no. That's alright. He'll come eventually.

I think he'll come when we can finally sit down and teach his son D. Elders have taught his family before and he's still very interested, and while cleaning I taught him about the Atonement and Word of Wisdom and he understood and was really happy and said they'd already been trying to quit. I've had several lessons with him actually, just on the spot I start talking Gospel and he listens intently and asks questions. He WANTS to sit down and have another lesson.

Excerpts from Elder Pierce

We had a very good time at the F. for Christmas, they were very kind to us. I'd also forgotten to tell you that we were at the T. family for Christmas Eve, and a ward Santa Claus came visiting and so we got our pictures with him.  And then we dressed up for nativity and Elder I., Ian T. and I were the (supposedly) three wise men bringing a gold box of chocolates, a cinnamon candle and a bottle of sparkling cider to baby Jesus (played very nicely by their new nephew/cousin).  We popped sparkling cider corks, family. They went POP and they flew up in the air and banged off the dining room walls into the chandelier.  SO THAT WAS FUN!!

We are actually hoping to teach a family through "practice teaching". This is the awesome part member family where the father is a Jew and likes us now because of the blessing we gave his wife for her pregnancy. Anyway. We asked if we would be able to practice teaching their family because we've been having trouble finding people to teach official discussions to which is absolutely true. And his wife is all for it so she can relearn all this stuff (she's been sort of less active) and he's willing to do it with her because he likes us. We've had conversations about Jesus Christ with him because he's never really understood what exactly the Christian viewpoint was on that. So I explained it to him that we're all climbing up this cliff, but none of us can possibly make it to the top without help, so Jesus Christ is the only one who made it to the top himself so he lowers a rope for us to climb. Just a basic idea that really helped him. So what we bump against is he doesn't believe we need that rope, but that we should take the responsibility ourselves. So we were explaining how the Jewish rituals in the Old Testament all pointed towards a Savior, so now we're just bumping up against whether they really were talking about the Christian Savior or even a Savior who lowers the rope down. Yeah. He's a great, great guy and a good father. He came to listen to my talk this Sunday.

A Merry Christmas From Elder Pierce

Michael asked that I post a link to a series of online videos.  It is an ongoing series (meaning every week or so another is added to the series) on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.  It is titled Bible Videos.  I have posted the main link on the side bar - but for this week of Christmas - here is The Nativity.

The Nativity

Praying to Know

First - I hope that the new blog template will make it easier to post and to read. I was having problems with copying/pasting from Michael's letters - it would bring over odd formatting that changed the way the post would look.

Second - If you're looking for a great Christmas tradition - check out the Festival of Lights at the Washington DC Temple Visitor's Center.  http://dctemplelights.lds.org/  Jessica and I were there this week and seeing all the missionaries there made me think of our missionary.  The lights are amazing and there are musical performances every night.

Third - We had a great letter from Elder Pierce this week:

"I have been trying to focus all my study attention on the Book of Mormon. As a missionary I remember the statement by Joseph Smith where he said all the preachers understood the same passage of scripture so differently so to make an appeal to the Bible useless. But now we have the Book of Mormon. An appeal to the Bible alone is completely useless. An appeal to the Bible with the Book of Mormon doctrines supporting it is profound. Only with the Book of Mormon can the Bible be interpreted correctly. Well anyway the point is I've been reading from the Book of Mormon and once again had a new layer of respect for it. I've found beautiful meaning in passages and chapters I had previously trudged over without gleaning any fruits. Now I can finally recognize the fruit. And that happens throughout a person's whole life. There is never an end to the fruit you find in the Book of Mormon. There is always more. There is always another layer to explore.

What does 'praying to know' mean? It means that God speaks to us today; his work did not end with the New Testament contrary to popular belief because He's a hard working fellow and can't stand to sit around while people perish like some corrupt government official. So he called a new prophet just like in the old testament, Joseph Smith, and brought forth new scripture just like with prophets in the Bible: the most important of which was the Book of Mormon. If you want to know whether or not this stuff is baloney or if its the most important thing you ever heard, then read the Book of Mormon , ponder its message, and ask God whether or not its really His word along with the Bible. He'll tell you.

And now to let Jessica know how my week has been: it has been great! We had two appointments with member referrals: one with a 50 year old single mother who loves horses and the other with a 60 year old retired divorced patriotic engineer. The one with the single mother went a bit better than the engineer one. But it was super good to sit down with a member and teach a discussion to a person who person who knows why we're there and wants to listen to Gospel stuff. So that was a blessing. We'll see where it goes. We invited them both to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it to know whether it is true. Also, I've had two opportunities to set up Christmas decorations, so I get double the traditional fun! One at a less active house where we set up the tree and struggled with the little toy train to get it to stay on the track. And one at a potential investigator's house. So it was really cool! Just super relaxing and a good opportunity. We also attended something big the stake has been working on: "Come to the Nativity", where they arrange over 600 little nativity scenes in the cultural hall, with live music in the chapel from different performers: it runs like an open house from 2 - 9 pm on Friday Saturday and Sunday. We were ushers on Friday for the art walk, where they have this hallway draped with curtains and hanging on the walls are all these pictures depicting the Savior's earthly ministry, and at the end of the hallway there's a separate room with a stone table cracked down the middle and a cloth folded neatly at one end. The Tomb. It was incredibly spiritual in there and we had a marvelous experience. We got a lot of people at that event. We were out handing out the invitations and inviting all of our investigators to it. It was a big community thing. Great missionary opportunity."