See you in about 49 hours!

Ok so the AP's just called to say that there was a change of plans and that I need to be at the mission office in about two hours, which means that I need to run home and quickly pack all my stuff. So I don't have much time at all to send this email out.

I guess I will just wait til Wednesday when you can all hear it first hand.

Finished the Book of Mormon this morning. I guess that's why I am out today instead of tomorrow. Someone told President I was ready to roll out.

Well, Love you

See you in about 49 hours.

Elder Pearce

Reason for Being Sent to Huntington for Three Weeks

So this was a good week,

So the biggest person we have been working with is S, that young man we found knocking doors. We set up an appointment with him on Wednesday and we brought over one of the young mens councilors, but he wasn't there. It didn't turn out too bad though because we were able to go and visit two other less active young men with the member. Then we went back over to S's on Thursday just to see if he was there and we were able to have a lesson with him. Before the lesson even started we could feel just more hope coming from him. We taught the Plan of Salvation up through our life on earth and the Atonement and left him the pamphlet to read and by the end he was all smiles, just loving everything we were saying. Then we went back over there on Saturday and finished teaching him about the Plan, focusing on eternal families and after we asked him what he thought about it and he said that it was the greatest thing he had ever heard. He was so excited about coming back to church but unfortunately this past weekend he was out of town but he promised us that he would come this week. We left him with a Book of Mormon and a Bible and showed him the additional study section of the pamphlet and we didn't even have to invite him to read them, he was ready to go. He is doing so great. I honestly think that he was the reason why I got sent out here for my last three weeks.

Other than that we have mostly just doing lookups all week, without much fruit. We are working with a recent convert, who Elder Hunt baptized last transfer, named Cesar, and he is doing really well. He just got the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday and most of the questions he asks me are about how to get more involved in certain activities in the church, so he seems to be getting really strong. For example, the branch just started a 40 day fast for missionary work and after church yesterday, Cesar came up to me and asked exactly what was going on with that and how he could participate, so I explained that to him and then he went straight to the calendar and signed up.

As for your questions,

I am getting along well with Elder Hunt (Tyler). He is from the same MTC district as Elders Bush and Erickson. So I have now served around 7 of the 8 from that district. This is his second area. He was in Riverhead (the north fork of Long Island) for 4 transfers, and this is his 4th here as well. It makes me feel really old just because these missionaries that I trained are now hitting their year marks. And the day before I leave there is a missionary coming back from an injury who will be with Elder Hunt for the rest of the transfer. So the timing worked out perfectly there.

Not too much is planned yet for my birthday.  I'm not sure if the other missionaries know it is my birthday this week. Elder Hunt might know, I mentioned it once to Cesar during the lesson when we were getting to know each other, but I'm not sure if Elder Hunt caught it. I am planning on just surprising everyone by taking them out to lunch. That's good enough for me.

Well I think that's about all for this week.

Love you all,
Elder Pearce

Transfer Instead to Huntington Long Island

Alright so this was a nice week.  So last Monday night we went out to say more goodbyes to members.

On Tuesday we went to transfer meeting, where I was shocked by being sent to Huntington, in Long Island. I wasn't even paying attention, I just heard my name called and stood up, then had to ask other missionaries where they said I was going and who my companion was. Oh well it was good. Then I didn't even really have a chance to get to know my companion at all that day (his name is Elder Hunt by the way, he is from Sandy) because I had to go and have the "get ready to get back in the real world" meeting, then we went to the mission home for the night. It was a lot of fun. Lost quite a bit of sleep but it was a really cool experience.

Wednesday morning I met back up with Elder Hunt and we went out to Huntington and got all of my stuff unpacked. We didn't have too many lessons but I was able to meet a lot of cool people, and had some cool experiences. Huntington is like Far Rock in that it is a zebra branch, but that's about where the similarities end. Huntington is about 75% white and is full of doctors and lawyers and grad school students. It seems like half the branch is from Utah. It usually has about 120 people at church and it sounds like they are just waiting for a new building to make it a ward. Two of the members of the stake presidency, 4 high councilmen, and a member of the mission presidency are from the branch, so there are plenty of strong members. It is a pretty stark contrast to all of the areas that I have been in.  It is a nice area. I see a lot more trees than people, which is strange, but I like that better.

We don't really have any investigators, but we are working with a few less actives right now. We have one guy named Gus who is really cool. He is 29 and he had a stroke last winter. He has had to slowly relearn how to function. But that was kind of his wakeup moment. He has been going to church and is trying to go to the temple now.

Our little miracle of the week happened Saturday night. We went to go look up a potential, but he wasn't available so we were walking back to the car and we saw a house that was kind of tucked back off the road and we decided to go knock it. We got turned down pretty hard but as we were about to leave, the younger brother walked out to talk to us and said that he had been to our church before and we were welcome to go and talk to him some other time if we wanted. So the next day at church I asked our district leader if he had ever heard of the kid, because he has been in the area for a while and he said that they actually discussed him in branch council that morning. Turns out he was baptized but had not been seen in about 4 years. The address and phone number were bad so they could not find him anywhere. We went back to talk to him that night and he told us that both of his parents had died in the last few months and he is just in a state of flux right now trying to figure out what is going to happen to him. He has been praying really hard for some support and then we knocked on his door. And is really is a total miracle because where he lives now is really off the beaten path, somewhere missionaries probably haven't passed by in a long time. So we are going to be working closely with him, and try to get some more members over there to help him out as well.

I think that's about it from my end.

To answer your questions:

My address is 10 boulevard ave. (nice name right), Greenlawn, NY.

At transfer meeting all of the departing missionaries do a musical number as a farewell. We sang "My Friend" I think. It was kind of a weird song. It was good though.

And yes those were baleadas in the picture.  The other picture was the V family. He is the one that is just waiting to get work off to be baptized and yes those were the twins I was talking about.

Love you all,
Elder Pearce

Transfer to Stanton Island for Final Three Weeks

Alright so this was a pretty good week,

On Monday night we were able to meet with Carlos and Delmis again. They are still doing alright. Haven't done too much since the last time we met.

On Tuesday we went to go see the Vital's in the morning. He told us that his goal is to be baptized on his daughters' birthday now, which is Oct. 25 so that's two months closer than his previous goal of Christmas. So that's good. After that we had district meeting and then all went back to our pads for inspections. They came about an hour and a half late so that took up most of our afternoon. Then that night we went out with one of the young men (Justin, the Vital's son) to go do lookups. We didn't get in anywhere but it was fun.

On Wednesday we had service in the morning then we went to the office for my departing interview. It was a really good interview but really weird because it was my departing interview. I don't feel that old yet. After that our whole district did splits (except the sisters stayed together) to go do lookups and all five companionships got in a door and taught a lesson. Whooo! those five lessons was about our district average for lessons taught per week before that so that was really cool.

Thursday we had weekly planning then did lookups the rest of the afternoon and taught english class that night.

On Friday we did exchanges with the other elders, which really isn't that big of a deal in our mission because we all work in the same area and do district activities almost every day.

On Saturday morning I got a call from President Calderwood telling me that I was going to be released as district leader. Then he said that he found out that morning that a missionary in the MTC that was supposed to come here on Tuesday got sick and had to go home, so now his trainer-to-be was not going to have a companion, so they are going to move me with him for my last three weeks. So I am being moved after all. All signs point to Staten Island but it is not for sure. That will be cool though to stay in the same zone and still get to see everyone.

After that I went to my last leaders meeting, then we went and had lunch/dinner with some members and one of their friends that they invited over. Then we went and did another lemonade stand.

On Sunday I spent most of our free time saying goodbye to members (and getting fed a lot). Today I have a few more visits to make and then packing because we have to leave early for the office tomorrow to practice the departing missionary musical number (it is going to be a little weird singing the departing number and then getting my transfer call to a new area but whatever).

That's about it for this week,

Love you all,

Elder Pearce

Pokemon Cards and Upcoming Baptism

Alright so this was a pretty good week.

On Tuesday night we went out on splits with the Elders Quorum, which was really cool. The president is really getting on board with missionary work. He set up another time this Wednesday, so that will be really good.

On Wednesday we started out doing service in the senior center kitchen, where we ate lunch. Then we went straight from there to a DA, which is normally just a pick up at their house, but they invited us in to eat, so we had back to back lunches. Then we were out looking for some less actives when we found a nice Honduran grocery store and bought some nice souvenirs. Then we went to our pad to drop off the stuff and ate a light dinner. We then went to correlation, where our correlator also made us a light dinner. And we went straight from there to our bishops, where he made us a full dinner. We were ready to crash by the time we got home. Also at the bishops house his wife had the Honduras-USA gold cup semifinal match on, so Elder Hernandez was glued the whole time we were there. He was pretty sad about the results but he got over it. It's still fun to tease him though.

Thursday we had a good english class.

Friday we did a street sweep with the district to put up a bunch of posters for the english classes. Then that night we went to help a member move.

Saturday we had stake service day in the morning where our ward went down to a park to clean for a while. Then we went and ate lunch at 5 Guys. Why does 5 Guys have to be so good? Then we taught english class again, met with a less active, and went to a bbq that one of the members was throwing.

Sunday President and Sister Calderwood came to church to speak to the ward which was really cool. Elder Hernandez was up on the stand with them translating then when it came time to speak he looked at me and called me up so I got to translate their talks. It was good though. They were really good talks.

Then when I was getting numbers from the district, the sisters told me some good news. They got a baptismal date! Whoo! Our district has been working so hard trying to get a baptism. This is awesome for all of us and is really good timing to help get the ward pumped up. She will be getting baptized on Aug 6th, right before we all run to transfer meeting.

I guess for a little nice experience from this week about how the spirit works in just little things that we don't really expect. When we were putting up posters on Friday we went into a dollar store to see if they would let us put one up and while we were there I saw some Pokemon cards and figured why not get some and then give them to one of the kids in the ward here who I know collects them. I saw a nice Growlithe in the stack and then on Sunday at church gave them to him and he gave me a big hug and said that all of his cards  got wet and got ruined so he had to throw them all away and was trying to figure out how to start a new set. So sometimes the Spirit prompts us in things as insignificant as Pokemon cards.

I don't know if I will send a box home or not yet. We will just see how it goes. I plan on leaving a lot of stuff here, especially if Elder Hernandez can use it. I think I should be fine but we will see how it goes.

I think that's about it for this week,

Love you all,

Elder Pearce

A lot of Time on Hot Pavement

Alright so this week was interesting.

On Tuesday we switched to exchange with the zone leaders at around five, and had some good member visits. We spent a lot of time pounding it out in the sun on Tuesday and Wednesday looking for formers to no avail, but it was good, 'I feel like a missionary right now' time.

On Thursday I had my departing temple trip. Wait what?!? That made me feel really old. It was really cool going through the temple with the Calderwoods though. After that they took us all to the Carnegie Deli. All of us elders of course ordered the Woody Allen. We also all ordered bacon on it. That was a big sandwich. Under some different circumstances, I could have finished it (such as lack of bacon, or presence of mayo, or eating the corned beef before the pastrami) but I ended up getting about five bites away and not being able to finish. It was really disappointing. Another one of the Elders ate the whole thing plus a slice of cheesecake. He threw up on the way back to the office. It's a big sandwich.

Friday wasn't too exciting. Some building maintenance people decided to take it upon themselves to clean the library and ended up tossing a lot of our missionary supplies, so we had to do some dumpster diving to recover it all. That was pretty frustrating.

Saturday we started out helping a member move. Somehow Elder Hernandez and I got assigned the job of carrying everything from the old apartment to the new while everyone else sets up the bunk bed at the new place so that was a good workout. After that we went straight to playing soccer. And once again it was hot enough for the turf to melt to the bottoms of our shoes. After that we were quite tired and one of the members most kindly took us to Five Guys. That was pleasant. Then we went home and showered and changed and went to a wedding. It was about time. The couple both used to be in Midwood the first time I was there and got engaged while I was there. But it was a fun wedding. With most of the members of both Midwood and Dyker there so that was nice to talk to everyone again.

Sunday we still had no luck at getting people to church. We had a good lemonade stand though, so that was fun.

Today we got our haircuts. That's why this email is coming so late. It should be my last haircut of the mission though.

Well I think that's about it for this week.

Love you all,
Elder Pearce

New Investigator

So this was a pretty good week.  We finally found a new investigator. On Thursday night in English class, after the spiritual thought, a man was asking a lot of questions about the plan of salvation, so we talked to him a little and set up an appointment to teach him. We met with him on Saturday and had a good lesson. He is really excited to keep learning so hopefully we will see some progression there.

Then, also on Saturday, we had dinner with the second councilor in the bishopric here, who is a returned missionary, and he said that the bishopric had noticed that it has been almost 6 months since the ward had had a baptism. So he asked us what the ward was doing wrong, which was not what I was expecting him to say but it was nice that he realized that it was not just us. So we talked about it for a while, then he set up an appointment yesterday morning to meet with the whole bishopric and our ward mission leader about it and it was a really good meeting. We talked about how to get more member involvement, they set up a ward fast for missionary work in August, and are going to have talks almost every week from us and from the members about missionary work. This might be the breakthrough we have been waiting for here.

What else? On Tuesday we taught a lesson to one of the sister's investigators. Her name is Gladys and her husband is an inactive member. Elder Hernandez was teaching them with his companion before I got here but he husband stopped wanting to meet but she still wanted to so we handed them off to the sisters. But now the husband is semi-interested so the sisters wanted us to visit them too. So they might just be co-taught from here on out. Who knows?

On Saturday we had another really busy day. We started with Soccer at 11, which was fun. Then we had to go straight from showering/lunch to English class, after which we taught Jorge, and then we pretty much ran from there to our dinner with the 2nd councilor, then back to our pad to prepare the lemonade for a combined spanish/chinese lemonade stand, which was a little more successful for us this time.

Today is also a busy day. This morning we did a district breakfast at the church, where Elder Hernandez and I made baleadas (including tortillas from scratch), the sisters made tostones, and the other elders made smoothies (Elder Martinez used to work a Jamba Juice). Then after this we have our zone activity, which I am really glad I argued to make it indoors because today is the hottest day of the year so far (although it is not as humid today). Then we have ward FHE tonight.

Well that's about it,

Love you all,
Elder Pearce