Elder Pierce

2010-06-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

2010-03-10T17:21:00.000-08:00

96 days and counting

this picture is of kyle when he received his call. i can't believe it's been almost 2 years since he's been gone.

i got this picture off of lindsey's blog (i hope you don't mind lindsey)

Pics + Email

2010-02-24T10:44:00.000-08:00

Sorry if i repeated any pictures from the last post. Also, sorry but i don't have captions for the pics. These are pictures i took off of the SD card he sent me.
Enjoy!

Elder Pierce Forwarded the email he sent to his Dad because he wanted me to hear the story he wrote David. He made up the name "Carl" for the investigator. Here's the story.

"Okay about my investigator carl. well carl about 5 days ago had no job about to get evicted with no where to go, he has a girlfriend that he lives with and two children, no money, basically no hope. two weeks ago he was considering going back to selling drugs, luckily we talked him out of it. well about a week and a half ago he told us that he doesnt see much hope and that he needs help and he wants to learn about faith next time we come over. so the next time we go we read with him the chapter out of the gospel principles book on fatih and he really believed that it would work. we talked about having faith and putting in teh works. after that lesson he came to church he started to work his butt of trying to find a job visiting everywhere he could but with no luck. so about 5 days ago it was looking pretty bad for him. but he said he didnt give up the faith and he kept looking. he woke up one morning and started calling jobs out of the phone book (this is two days before hes about to get evicted) and he finds someone that says come a pick up an application. he goes right when he hangs up and talks with the head guy who gives him an interview. that same day shannon his girlfriend (also trying to exercise faith) got a call from her mom saying that she found a great deal on a condo, no crimanal backround, no credit check, etc all you need is $850, okay im running out of time but long story short in one day the lord turned everything around they got a house carl is getting a job shannon also has an interview today with someone and within 24 hours of them paying off the car they had they got a new better one. carl was so excited and called us and he was on cloud 9 let me tell you. so that was a pretty cool miracle. i really saw this guy and his family at rock bottom and now they are doing so well all because of faith.

i hope that story makes sense it would be easier to explain in person. okay i gotta go.

im still working hard dont worry things are great.

love elder pierce"

Pictures from Virginia

2010-01-20T08:14:00.000-08:00

Email, 25 November 2009

2009-11-26T07:29:00.000-08:00

"That letter that you sent was great. i loved the stuff you looked up about nutrition at BYU. i definitely want to finish at byu and like you said i think it will be really fun if whitney and jordan are there and my sister and her family. and also alot of my cousins will be there. like anthony and his new wife and... wait the people i was thinking about will be on missions or done with college, but it will still be fun with both our sisters near by. i think that nutritional science sounds the most like what i want to do. when my mission comes closer to its end ill probably ask you to look up more stuff. in the letter i got in the package from you and my mom, i loved the cereal that you guys bought me. and i thought it was funny how you guys included the nutrition facts haha that was sweet.
oh you asked if i like nice ties old ties funny ties, well the ones i like are polyester ties. they might be kinda hard to find. i only see them at thrift stores and stuff. polyesters are really good for the rain and they usually have some pretty cool designs. maybe at the DI they would have some. if you cant find any anything you get me i will love. i know you probably hate that answer. just get one that you think looks nice and that will be the one i want.
hey in your letter you also said that you saw missionaries on bikes... i wanted to know where you saw them at. in utah? i didnt know missionaries ride bike out there. or did you mean in japan?i thats okay that the diet isnt working that well just keep commiting to doing better and then it will eventually happen. i cant wait to eat healthy with you when i get back. is it going to be wierd for you that my whole eating habbits have changed? remember how i used to eat fast food every meal of the day man that was horrible. i remember you always saying that fast food is gross and now i would agree with you.
anyway about me, we had tonya's baptism on saturday. it was great. elder larson baptized her and i confirmed her. her daughters will be baptized probably in the next couple weeks so that will be good. we have been really blessed in this area. we have so many people to teach its awesome and we have found some pretty sweet investigators. we had one of those little miracles that you always hear about this past week. i gotta go but long story short we went to an appointment and the person wasnt there and we were about to leave but something told us to stay and knock afew doors. well the last door that we knock on happens to be this guy that has been wanting to get back to church and invited us back. i love it when those things happen. the lord is definitely in the work. the church is true we both know that and lets not forget it.well see ya
love kyle
ps Thanksgiving and turkey bowl is tomorrow!!! what are you doing for thanksgiving?"

199 Days

2009-11-24T11:40:00.000-08:00

We are in the 100's now! 199 days left to go

10 November 2009

2009-11-19T14:40:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been so long!!

" Well this letter is gonna be short because i'm freakin tired. We just got done playing Settlers of Catan, yeah, we're nerds. we play it like every P-day. We actually played two games and i won both. it was sweet.
Anyway did i tell you that Elder Larson Dear Janed his gf. I can't remember if i told you this or not but the day after E. Larson sent the letter he got apackage from, guess who? Kailee, his gf. In the package was this nice picture book and it looks like she spend a good bit of time doing it, so I felt bad for elder Larson. He didn't seem to care too much. He says everything will work out with them in the end. Elder Bishop and I thought it was o funny that that happened.
So have you seen Sean yet? man that is so crazy that he's home now. Has he changed any, did he have a homecomin talk yet?
Next is Greg and Jordan. They get back soon too. wow. I think it's going to be so fun the summer I get back because everyone will be home. In the newsletter some of them say we're going to do Temple Tour '10 which would be awesome.
Hows the eating healthy going? I've been doing pretty good still but i think i've lost some weight since i've been in Meadowbrook. because of the bike I'm sure. It's so hard o gain muscle mass and weight for me. i don't know why, i guess it's just my genes. But i guess I shouldn't complain I'm sure there are plenty of people that would love to have the problem i have haha.
Have fun in STG
Love, Kyle

8 July 2009

2009-07-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

I just got back from fotball and shopping and now its 5:30 and P-day is almost over. I swear, on P-days the hours go like twice as fast than on regular days.

Football was fun. It was 4 on 4 and we played a bunch of games up to 5 TDs then we would switch teams. I won every game it was sweet. I was kinda mad that it was only 4 on 4 there should have been more people but the zone right next to us said they couldn't come at the last second, but it's all good it was fun. The only problem is I used up all my p-day miles to get to the park that we played at so now i'm going to have to get members to take us shopping and stuff. We can only use 40 miles a month for p-day it stinks.

Anyways, lets see what else is going on...My companion kinda gets on my nerves. He's really uptight about a lot of things and i'm really laid back about things. and he's always so negative after lessons. We'll go into a lesson and then i'll think we did good but then he always says "man, that was such a bad lesson there was no spirit there." I don't know something like that. He's not all bad, he does have some good qualities. He is very obedient and he has a very strong testimony so thats good. I guess i would rather have an uptight serious companion than a lazy companion that doesn't want to do anything.

Ya know whats weird transfers are next week again. On tuesday we find out where we're going if we're going anywhere ata ll. I think I'll probably stay in Gayton unless the President makes me a zone leader or trainer or something. I think it would be sweet to be a trainter. I hope i get the chance one of these days. Zone leader I don't think i would like to be because it takes up so much time. It will be interesting to see what leadership changes will occur this transfer because i think like 14-16 elders are going home and we're getting I think 19 greenies and out of the 14-16 that are going home i think like 11 or 12 are in leadersip positions so we'll see.
my time is running out, well it is out. I'll write more next week.
love, kyle (elder pierce)

Happy 4th Elder Pierce.

2009-07-07T15:56:00.001-07:00

hope you had a good one... this time next year, you will be celebrating with us!
Let the countdown begin!

June 17, 2009

2009-06-26T16:13:00.001-07:00

(letter to Maria)

Hey Mom!
How are you doing? Have you been on call 24/7? I hope not. Well everything is going good here, you probably heard about transfers already so I'm pretty excited that I'm staying in Gayton I've grown attached to many of the people here. I guess that's the key to missionary work, loving the people. My new companion is elder Meacham whom I know nothing about except that he's been out 6 months. I've heard he likes basketball and that he's a pretty cool guy.
Anyways thanks for your continued letters and support. I always get excited to see a letter from you in the mailbox. In your last letter you said kevin has drove on the highway twice! that's awesome. I can't believe kevin is doing so good. He'll be driving by himself when i get back and he'll probably have a car and i will not haha. Where is my car by the way? Is Dad driving it? Tell Kevin thanks for writing me, I love getting stuff from him too.
Well let me tell you how the area is going. Two investigators came to church on Sunday, one was Samuel (sudanese guy) and the other was Chris (the 9 year old that is set for baptism.) Chris is really starting to like church which is awesome because if he wants to come to church then his LA parents will come to church. And that's exactly what we want before Chris gets baptized, for his family to be active.
On Sunday we also taught Pam in the Ashton's home (members, Pam's best friend). We have grown an extremely good relationship with Pam she's pretty much like another mom haha. We have been having really good discussions with her, spirit felt and everything but she just feels so strongly that the Catholic church is true. So at the Ashtons we felt like we should teach about Joseph Smith and we did and it was powerful. Pam explained that she really wants to know the truth, that she would have no problem changing if she found out our church was true. I see why it's so hard for her though, she feels like she knows the Catholic church is true so if she were to turn away from that that would be like turning away from God. Yesterday she told us/me some very interesting things. She said if she ever does get baptized, which she said she doesn't think she ever will, then she would want me to do it. She said that I have made her think and investigate the church more sincerely than anyone else, she said a lot of other things that she wrote in a book that she gave to me. I'll have to let you read it when i get back. So i know i have at least 4 more weeks to wrok on her. She's also told me that i need to consider being a lawyer and then she explained to me all the things i need to do. So who knows, maybe i'll become a lawyer. Ya know what would be awesome is to be a lawyer for the church, now thats something i think i would love to do.

(i'm going to laser tag, i'll be back in a bit)
okay, i'm back, Laser tag was awesome, the only problem is now i only have like 15 mins. of p-day left. we had about 8 elders and 2 other people there. The last game, the worker did something really cool he turned out the lights and filled the room with fog, so it was intense.
okay i'm running out of things to say. The work is going good, i'm excited for the new trnasfer, I wish Elder Burningham was sticking around but thats the way it goes, i guess i'll see him after the mission.
Tell Kevin i can't wait to see him again, he's definitly one of my best friends and i'm looking forward to seeing movies with him when i get back. Man, mom the year mark is weird it feels like I have no time left, I guess it's given me a renewed sense of urgency, I need to work even harder than i've been working because it's going to be done before i know it.
Anyway, one more thing about transfers, I'm still the district leader but i think i'm only going to have one other companionship in my district instead of 3. it'll be nice, less numbers to worry about and less calls to make.
Okay i love you mom and kevin youa re both great and i can feel your prayers on my behalf. I know you have given me strength. Thanks again.
Love, Elder Pierce

Birthday

2009-04-15T22:55:00.000-07:00

Brother & Sister Pierce,

What a great missionary you
have!  We were so thrilled to have dinner
with him and Elder Burningham last night and celebrate your sons
birthday!  I know he wishes he were with you in your kitchen having
cupcakes, but hopefully ours did alright as a susbstitute for this
year.

He is a dynamite missionary and we are so blessed to have him in our
ward. We are still getting to know him, but you can see the fire in
his eyes that he has work to do while he's here and he's going to get
it done!  We've needed a missionary like him!  Thank you for sending
your son to do the most important work there is on this earth!

Enjoy the Pictures,

the McIntyres

Crazy Story!

2009-04-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

This is from the last letter I received from Elder Pierce. I couldn't believe this story while I was reading it but now that it's settled in and I realize there is nothing I can do about it. I'll share it with all of you. He actually asked me not to tell his family this story because he knew they might freak a little but I think it will be alright. here it is...

"Anyways I actually do have to tell you something pretty serious. You can't tell my mom or my family or anyone. Well there's this girl in our ward and she is always hitting on Elder Birningham and I and we don't know what to do. Her family is always inviting us over for dinner and this girl always sits by us. The last time we went over there I was sitting next to her and her parents left to go get the food and this girl put her hand on my leg and i was "like what the heck?" Sometimes she calls us at night. We don't answer of course. We told president and President said he's going to have to E.T. us, meaning emergency transfer us somewhere else." Crazy huh? well i'll write the rest of what he wrote in his letter.
oh yeah, and it was actually an april fools joke. he tricked me, did i trick you? So don't worry. it's fake.
"Well I won I think all my games in basketball today except 1 and we played a lot of games, it was pretty fun. Elder Karpowitz was getting pissed because his team kept losing haha.
So let's see what has been going on here, the transfer is like more than half over that's pretty crazy[...] So like I said in my email we set a girl for baptism and she's pretty excited. I don't think she knows what it means yet to be baptized or the commitment that she would aake, but we'll teach her. the first time we told her we wanted her to be baptized she was like "yeah i want to be baptized, how about next weekend?" we said "Woah, that's awesome, but we have to teach you first." She is really easy to teach but I think it's going to be a little bit harder to baptize her, just because of the people she hangs around but she's told us she wants to change so that's good. her name is Ashley, by the way. Her foster mom is way sweet she's a greek lady named Mrilyn Pierakkos. She is always giving us food, it's way nasty haha we don't ever eat it, is that bad?
So we don't really have much else. We're teaching this Turkish guy and his family but he's out of town till the 11th. we're also teaching this Lutheran couple I don't know if i told you or not. they are pretty smart and I think last time was the first time they came close to thinking about praying. They believe in the whole saved by grace thing and that's it. this last visit I asked them if a murderer that says he believes in christ and then right after goes and kills someone would go to the same place as someone who lived righteously and believed after death and she said yes. and on top of that if a person in China or Africa never heard about Jesus Christ but lived a good life where would he go? Merideth said "outer darkness." I think if they stopped and listened to themselves and opened their hearts a little they would feel the spirit, but they're still meeting with us so that's good.
Oh, let me tell you about another lady name Joann. She's another person we're teaching but she claims she will never convert. We actually haven't ever taughter her yet the other elders have, yesterday we met her for the first time. And I guess she wanted to see if we ever read the bible or something because she was like "So tell me what you know about Paul, he's a very important person in the NT ya know" (like we don't read the bible) so we answered and she was pretty impressed (the questions she asked could probably be answered by one of our primary children haha). She's way nice though and she said she was going to invite us to dinner so that's sweet. "

Pictures!

2009-03-26T08:11:00.003-07:00

Some from a few months back and some more recent. Enjoy. Elder Pierce looks like he's having a blast!

TRANSFERS.

2009-03-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

Kyle got transfered again, so if you haven't sent him a Birthday letter/package, please note his NEW ADDRESS.

ELDER KYLE PIERCE
2532 Potomac Hunt Ln. #1A
Henrico, VA 23233

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLE!

2009-03-04T14:25:00.001-08:00

Feb. 11, 2009 (8 months!)

2009-02-18T12:26:00.001-08:00

...
ya know how i like to eat healthy, right? well I will always take wheat over white now and i was looking at the breads and I saw "new 9 grain honey oat." So i think to myself does that mean it's whole grain?I conclude that it means whole grain in my mind so I tell the guy "Honey oat." But then i wanted to make sure so i asked "is honey oat whole wheat?" and then the guy answered in a mean tone "you said honey oat." so i said "no, no, is honey oat whole wheat?" then he got a little more angry at me and he said "you want wheat or honey oat?" and i said "sir, you can say that a little more politely." Then it kinda escalated and we both got mad at each other. Later I found out that a lot of people have been asking him the same question and he just doesn't understand. And also the natural tone of his voice was a little bit on the mean side. So i ate the sandwich and i heard the guy i got in the argument with was still upset and talking to his co-worker about wheat and white bread. After i got done with the sandwich i decided to tell the man that i was sorry. yeah, i swallowed my pride and did it. It turned out pretty well we ended up giving him a pass-along card and we left on good terms. The power of humility..
Let me tell you another story. So we're at one of our investigator's house (Kai's house) and we're teaching him. well actually right before we start the lesson I saw this roach crawling near me (oh one more thing, the lesson was we showed him a movie so he was watching the movie when i saw the roach.) So I asked Kai "Hey Kai there's a roach right here do you have a napkin so i can get it for you?" and his reply was "no, no, I can spray, i can spray." but then he just kept sitting and watching the movie. I thought hmm let's try this again. "Don't worry about it kai, if you just give me a napkin i can get it." he said "no, no, I spray, i spray" and he kept sitting and watching the movie. so i just gave up. haha. Towards the middle of the movie a roach was crawling right behind the t.v. and kai just acted like nothing was wrong, It was sick.

P.s.
new pictures below! \/

New area and New companion

2009-02-18T11:27:00.000-08:00

Elder Pierce= District Leader

Kyle's new companion, Elder Karpowitz

Elder Pierce and Elder Leonard with some happy people :) sorry, i don't know who they are.

Merry Christmas + Happy New Year.

2008-12-24T13:59:00.000-08:00

click on picture to enlarge.

Updating...

2008-12-04T07:25:00.000-08:00

sorry it's taken me so long! I'm going to do better... these are kyles last few letters to dad. Enjoy.

October 1st

well everything is going good here. i have alot i want
to tell you so ill try to type fast. well my new area is norfolk VA and its a
bike area. its really ghetto and there is a naval base here so alot of navy
people in the area. the is a lot of potential in this ward to baptize and me
and elder zimmerman are gonna have good success here. this last week we obtained a
bunch of new investigators and a bunch of referrels (11 in the past 2 days).
yeah its crazy in chesterfield i think i got 3-4 referrels in 12 weeks. we dont
have anyone set for baptism yet but we will soon enough. the ward is pretty big
we have about 130-140 active coming every week. the ward just
split actually last week and before the split they had like 300 or something coming every
week. i live with another companionship and they cover the norfolk 2nd ward while me
and elder zimmerman cover the 1st ward. the ward is good except that out of all
those people we have a hard time finding exchanges to go out with us.
the weather has been pretty bad its rained hard for like 4 of the 7 days that i
have been here. and we ahd to ride in it everytime and yes we got soaked
everytime. we even tract in it. its funny because when its raining we will
knock on someones door and they will think we are crazy for being out in the rain,
but thats what missionaries do right haha whatever it takes to bring people into
the gospel. lets see what else we have quite a few solid investigators and like i said
before we obtained a bunch of new ones this week. so we are being blessed a
ton. i am raelly liking being on bike tracting and street contacting is alot better
and funner on bike. and its fun being in the ghetto haha. sometimes we get
referrals for people in downtown norfolk and its pretty dirty down there if you
know what i mean. but dont worry the lord protects missionaries. anyway thats
about it i dont really have any cool stories. i guess i do have one. yesterday
we were riding back home from trying to contact this investigator and we passed
this intersection and we got like 20 yards passed it or something and something
told me to go back. so i kinda ignored it at first but then i remembered in the
zone meeting we had that morning the person that spoke to us said to follow any
little prompting you get no matter what. so i turned around and went back and i
saw some black ladies with their kids talking or wahtever and so i rode over
and started talking to them. well long story short i talked with this one lady
for like 15 mins and got a return appointment so that was cool. the appointment is
for tommorrow so i dont know if anything will come out of it yet but well see.

October 15

sorry i didnt get to write you last week it was a crazy week. we went and
played football in VA beach with a bunch of other missionaries it was pretty
fun. well my area is pretty sweet. its way ghetto and there are a lot of black
people haha. they are really nice and there are a lot that are receptive to the
gospel. but they are really fluffy meaning they will listen but they wont keep
their commitments like read or pray or come to church or keep their
appointments
which is really frustrating sometimes. man dad i was in the projects like on
saturday and its amazing to see where our tax dollars go. some of these people
just spend all their welfare money on
lottery tickets alcohol drugs cigarettes
its crazy. its sad to see a little kid and knowing that he has to be raised in
that kind of atmosphere. but yeah some areas are pretty bad, when i say bad i
mean poor. but yeah we get a lot of media referrals for down town and stuff so
we go there alot. our most solid investigator is actually a hispanic lady that
we tracted into last thursday. it was a pretty cool experience. we had a little
bit of time before our ward correlation meeting so we rode around and picked
this random street to tract on. well we tract for awhile and its about time for
us to go and we say we'll do a couple more houses then leave. so we knock
on
this house and this lady named gladis answers. she seemed happy to see us right
when she opened the door and she came out and started talking to her. we found
out a little about her and she says that she used to go to our church while she
was in panama in
the navy 10 years ago. so she knew just a little bit about the
church already. what was really amazing was that she said she has been going
thru some really rough times (divorce foreclosure) and she had been praying
that
day for some help. well i guess the lord sent some missionaries haha. we
offered
to teach her more and she gladly accepted and then i offered to help her move
and she got really emotional because she said that is exactly what she needed
help with. cool huh. the lord answered her prayers. and i was able to be a part
of it. we got 3 other guys to come with us and we helped her move. its amazing
how the lord works. gladis is awesome she reads what we give her and she came
to
church this week so that was awesome. we also had another investigator come to
church. his name is david block. he is an awesome guy. he is not a member but
his wife is and they love the missionaries. we taught him a lesson on
prayer on
monday and taught him how to pray. so those are our two main people right now.
we have another guy that knows the church is true but he cant get over his
alcohol problem it stinks. were helping him out the best we can.
the weather is actually really nice right now today it was like 77 degrees

October 22

the work here is doing good. its starting to get colder and its
not too fun especially on bike. but thats missionary work. we set gladys for
baptism this week it was sweet. we went in planning to teach the plan of
salvation but we ended up just reading 3 nephi 11 with her which is the chapter
where jesus comes to america and teaches the people how to baptize. so after
we
read that we talked about baptism for a little bit then set a date. it wasnt
that hard because she is eager to get baptized. her date was for the nov 8 but
we had to move it back because she didnt come to church this week, she got
sick.
in our mission an investigator has to come at least 4 times before she can get
baptized. so lets see what else the area gets kinda frustrating sometimes
because we will set up a bunch of appointments but then more than 75% of them
cancel or the people just wont be there. some people just have no sense of
commitment. we are teaching a couple part member families. one is really solid,
his name is david block. he is so cool. he has been taught pretty much all the
lessons and he comes to church every week so we are not to sure what his hold
up
is at getting baptized. we think its because right now he knows that the church
is good but i dont think he knows if the church is true or
not. but he will
soon
enough. we taught him how to pray last time and promised that if he would ask
god would tell him.
well being on bike is pretty sweet because it really feels like you are
actually a missionary. i cant believe this transfer is more than half over. in
2
weeks we get tranfer calls again. missions are awesome, im learning a ton and i
have only been out like 4 months any wya i got to go

October 29

well everything is going good here. gladys is still doing awesome.(shes the one
we have set for baptism) we taught her yesterday on faith, repentence and
baptism. she told us that she was really scared to be baptized because she
didnt
know what to expect and she thought if she got baptized and messed up after
that
she would go to hell. but we cleared that up and we told her the whole process
of baptism and then she told us that she wasnt so scared anymore. the ward and
relief society is doing a good
job fellowshipping her so thats good. she came
to
all three hours this week and she loved it. so she is pretty solid but i know
that satan is gonna be working really hard on her for the next few weeks before
her baptism so were gonna have to work even harder. i dont see anything that
would keep her from being baptized though she is really eager to be baptized.
the only thing is that she watches those televangelists sometimes and listens
to
them so we're gonna have to tell her that those guys are all an abomination
haha. but yeah shes solid. bro block is doing good. we havnt taught him in
awhile because he has been out of town and when he came back he has been sick.
but on saturday we were able to see him and give him a bleesing so that was
cool.
lets see what else. the weather is getting pretty cold and its been really
windy lately which really stinks when you are riding your bike against it. on
saturday it
rained pretty much all day and me and my suit got drenched haha. i
guess thats missionary work.

November 5

it is kinda cold here. it hasnt got too bad yet. it really stinks
when it rains then it really gets cold and on a bike it just makes you
miserable. thats great to hear that your fantasy teams are doing well. i wish i
could have a fantasy team on my mission haha.
anyway the work here is doing good. we had transfer calls last night and we
found out that im staying in norfolk for another transfer and elder zimmerman
is
being transferred to a
place called petersberg. im getting a new comp named
elder leonard who i hear is great. we are still teaching gladys and she is
doing
great. its people like gladys that make missionary work totally worth it. im
glad i am not getting transferred because ill get to teach gladys the whole way
and see her be baptized. we taught her the word of wisdom and tithing the other
day and it went well, she had no problems with it. the only thing she had was
that she drinks a cup of coffee a day but she said she will quit no problem. we
are teaching her tonight again. her baptism is scheduled for the 22 of nov
right
now. so she is doing great.
we are also teaching bro block still and we have an appointment with him on
sunday and we are hoping to set him for baptism, so pray that that goes well.
we
have some other people in the works so this next transfer will be pretty sweet
i
think.
to answer your question on
tracting, no we dont tract alot. and thats because
we are on bike so pretty much we are constantly tracting because we are always
talking to people in the streets. its been a long time since we have actually
picked a street on the map. usually we have a referral that we go and visit and
then we tract around it. we still get quite a few referrals so its sweet. alot
of them are ghetto black people that are fluffy but oh well. anyway thats about
it. nothing too new. im loving the mission. norfolk is great. my butt kinda
hurts from biking like 20-30 miles a day but at least my legs are getting
bigger
and stronger. but okay i gotta go

November 19

well
this past week i went up to richmond to go on a long exchange
with the APs. it
was pretty cool. i got to play basketball with a bunch of other missionaries in
the mornings while i was up there. we were there from like wed night-sat
morning
and i played ball everymorning. it was so fun. anyway they are trying to get
every companionship out with the APs so we can learn from them and stuff. they
are way hardworkers and always talking to people. even when they come to stop
lights they roll down the window and try to talk to the person next to them
about the gospel. and they take like 5 mins lunches so they can go out and
work.
they are way good missionaries and i learned a lot from them
gladys is doing good she didnt come to church this past week because she had to
work all night so we are gonna have to push the baptism back another week. so
it
will be in december now so that kinda stinks but she is still ready to be
baptized and its cool the ill still be here and that she
has asked me to
perform
the baptism.
our other progressing investigator is bro block. he is the part member couple.
hes not a member and his wife is. he is awesome. he loves the missionaries and
before every lesson he always feeds us. last week he killed a deer and cooked
up
some venison for us. that was the first time i had deer meat and it was dang
good. but yea he is coming along really well. i think the only thing that is
keeping him from being baptized is his pride. i think it would be hard for
anyone to surrender and accept the were the only true church on the planet. but
he knows its true, its just a matter of time.
we also are teaching another guy that i might have told you about before. his
name is steve pake. he is such a cool guy and he has a testimony of the gospel
and the book of mormon but he just cant give up his wine. so were trying to
help
him with that.
well i have to go sorry i didnt
write too much. the work is great. we just need
to get somebody in that font haha. its coming. okay well ill talk to you next
week

November 26

anyway thanksgiving is gonna be pretty fun here. we get the day off and we got
invited to two places to eat. one at 3:00 and one at 6:00. the one at three is
gonna be a traditional turkey and all that good stuff. but the one at 6:00
we're eating some steaks. so im gonna be pretty full by the end of the day
haha. also, in the morning we have a turkey bowl so thats gonna be awesome. its
probably gonna be cold but as long as it doesnt rain ill be fine. so let me tell you a little about my week. it went really well. the last two
days we have taught like 8 lessons its been nuts. the last two days we actually
had 14 apointments scheduled but alot of them cancelled or werent home. we have
this one new investigator that is way solid. her name is athena. she is a
single black lady with a month old baby. she is way nice. she actually called
in
a requested a missionary visit. aparently she has a boyfriend in utah taking
lessons from the missionaries and he is really thinking about joining the
church
so he told her to look into it because it would be the best
thing for her baby
girl. so thats what shes doing and its going really well. she said she has been
praying and feeling good. we have taught her the rstoration and half of the
plan
of salvation. next time i think we want to try and set her for baptism.
another good new investigator we got is alaina. she is a recent converts
daughter. the recent convert is named charlie brown and hes is awesome. he used
to be a minister for a bunch of people but then he was taught and baptized
about
2 months ago. and he has a really strong testimony. as a matter of fact once he
gets the Mel prietshood he will be our ward mission leader because right now we
dont have one. anyway his daughter has shown some interest so we are teaching
her. she has a problem with joseph smith, she thinks we focus more on him than
on jesus christ and god. so we are trying to work thru that. but her boyfriend
is a member, used to be less active for a
long time but now is coming back.
okay
dad well i gotta go but the work is going really good here. i love norfolk i
hope i stay another transfer here. we ahve a ton of potential. at the end of
this transfer i think we could have like 5 or more people set for baptism. but
we'll see. gladys is still on fire and she is set for the 13 of december
now. i hated having to push it back again but its okay she'll get baptized.
okay i gotta go love you

December 3

how is everything going. yeah thanks giving was awesome. we got the day off and
we had two places where we ate dinner. one was at 3 and one was at 6. yeah we
ate quite a bit haha it was good. unfortunately i didnt get to watch football
like you but maybe in 2 yrs ill be able to. we had the traditional turkey dinner
at the huntsingers house at 3 and then at 6 we had steaks with this guy named
bro
miles. the turkey bowl was awesome. i was quarterback the whole time and it
was a lot of fun. i threw alot of picks but i threw alot of touchdowns and i
intercepted like a ton too. my comp and and the other two missionaries wanted to
leave after like only an hour and i was like man i only get to play football
once a year so i convinced them to stay for 2 hours. it was sweet. thats cool
that youre doing good in some of your fantasy teams. ya know in the church
league usually we always have the bast teams and we always lose in the first
round of the playoffs. so maybe this year now that you have a team that doesnt
score that much you might be able to take it. hopefully your not going up
against arron brooks in the first round or michael vick haha remember the other
years.
anyway norfolk is awesome i love it here. i hope i get to stay at least one
more transfer here. we were able to set another one of our investigators
for
baptism last night. her name is athena. i dont know if i told you much about her
or not. she is a self referral, single mom of a one yr old baby. her boyfriend
is in draper utah right now taking the lessons from the missionaries. so when
she went up there to visit him he told her that the lds church is the best place
to raise her little girl, so she looked into it and called us. and now she is
set for january 7. isnt that sweet. transfers are on the 18 of december and we
find out where we go on the 16th. so hopefully i can stay one more to see athena
get baptized. gladys is still doing great. she is scheduled to be baptized on
the 13 of december and she has come 4 times to church now so nothing is holding
her back from being baptized.
another one of our solid investigators is bro block. he is coming around
slowly. he comes to churc pretty much every week and he can get baptized pretty
much anytime. i guess he
is just waiting on that spiritual witness to come.he is
progressing really well. thispast sunday was the first time he came to all three
meetings so that was good. he loves meeting with us and him and his wife feed us
lunch everytime its awesome. so hopefully we can set him before i leave. and
another solid one we have is a girl named alaina. sheh is the daughter of one of
our recent converts charlie brown. she comes to shurch alot too. she stays for
the first two then leaves because she doesnt like how the men and the women
split up. she also haas somewhat of a problem with joseph smith. she thinks we
put too much emphasis on him and not enough on christ. but shes doing good. so
those are our main investgators who i think can be set with a baptism date by
the end of this transfer.
we ahve a bunch of other investigators but they dont keep there commitments. we
are teaching this one guy named sidney brewer who is a
media referral. he has
told us that he knows the book of mormon is true and we taught him and he seemed
pretty solid but he has started asking us for money for his son who is being
held in europe or something. so we dont know if he is meeting with us for money
or because he wants to know if the church is true.
but anyway norfolk is awesome. me and elder leonard are doing great. i cant
believe its already almost christmas. and i have almost been out 6 months crazy
huh. alright well i dont really know what else to say so im done.

-ELDER PIERCE (letters to dad)

Recent Pictures From The Field

2008-12-02T17:36:00.000-08:00

October 1

2008-10-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

I don't have a lot of time today and i may not have much time on any p-day this transfer but i'm going to try to make my letter as good as possible. The reason i don't have a lot of time is A) our appartment was a mess when we got here so we picked it up today and it took a little over an hour B) we have 4 elders in our appartment which means we are probably going to play risk a lot like we did today and C) we're on bike so it takes a little while to bike to the library for emails and shop for food and stuff...
My area is pretty ghetto, i don't know if i told you that already so yeah there is a lot of black people, but black people are really nice so it's okay.
we have a bunch of appointments this week coming up and we have already had a bunch so we have already been having success. and what's cool about this area is that we get a ton of referrals, meaning people calling and ordering something or like a member refers us to someone. Just to give you an idea of what i mean when "we get a ton", well in the last 3 days we have got, i think 17 referrals (i was going to write 12 but elder Hammer just walked in and said we got 5 more ). In Chesterfield i think i got like 3 referrals the entire time i was there. Oh by the way if we can contact all these referrals this week i think we will lead the mission . yeah, it's crazy how many referrals we're getting. All we are going to be doing for the next week is contacting referrals which is awesome.
Anyway, i got an appointment with a family of 6 tonight and they seem really interested in the gospel. You probably know this already but a family is a missionary's dream.
Let me tell you what happened yesterday. We went to see this guy named Edward Dennis, he's an investigator that thinks he knows the bible really well. Well we started talking to him and we kinda got in a bash. Well, i wouldn't say a bash more like an intense discussion. His concern was the book of mormon talks about people in the bible and it talks about the bible, but "the bible doesn't say anything about the BOM" so we whipped out Ezekiel 37 the one that talks about the two sticks (stick of Joseph and stick of Ephraim) we told him the people who wrote the bible were mainly of the house of Judah and the book of Mormon was written by prophets like lehi and his posterity which are descendents of joseph. So, we said when it says stick of Joseph they are talking about the BOM of course he denied it and tried to find an explanation. Long story short he said he would researech it and call us back. I doubt he will because he is pretty hard headed and he is one of those guys that thinks the bible is all we need.
-Elder Pierce

Email from Kyle

2008-10-03T20:53:00.000-07:00

So I thought i would update with an email I got from Kyle. I write him every week and usually just tell him about the fam, and he writes me when he has time, so here is one of his latest emails

hey i actually have like 8 mins to write to you this week. well my new area is pretty cool. it has a naval base so there are a ton of navy guys here obviously. it is pretty ghetto in some parts which makes missionary work even more fun haha. my new comp is really cool his name is elder zimmerman from utah (salt lake area i think) mostly and he lived in california for a little bit. he has been out for like 15 months and im learning a lot from him. we have alot of potential in this area and we have a bunch of investigators. the only problem with being in the ghetto is we get something we call ghetto fluff which means that alot of people will be like yeah sure you can come over i would love to hear about christ but then we get to there house and theyre not there. um lets see what else the weather has been pretty bad. its rained for like 4 of the 7 days that i have been here. im on bike by the way you probably know that already. im going to get moms package today actually so yeah ill get it its at the post office but okay i gotta go see ya
love elder pierce

sad about the "ghetto fluff" huh? :) .....i guess thats the missionary life :)

Aug 27 letter

2008-09-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

' Francis (an investigator) actually dropped us yesterday. we had an appointment to teach her and she called us and said that after talking with her friends she doesn't want to take the lessons anymore. yeah, it stunk. what amazes me though is that people always go to their friends or pastor but they never think about going to the Lord and asking. it bugs me. Dang Friends! So yeah, she was one of our top investigators, but we actually were able to obtain two new investigators yesterda. We tracted for 7 hours yesterday...yeah it was too fun. That's what you do when your teaching pool is low, tract. We tracted 6 hours the day before too. but back to yesterday, it's actually pretty cool what happened. we were six hours into tracting and we were about to go for dinner, we were having no success by the way. well on our walk back to the car we decided to take like three more houses. so we went to the first house and she answered but said she was on the phone that she doesn't talk at the moment, so we said we would come back. we went to the next two houses and nothing happened. so we started to head back and we thought that the lady wouldn't be too interested but we decided to go back to the house. she answered and she was really nice and was actually interested. she said she likes learning about other religions and she said she didn't really think the Baptist church is the correct church (she is a Baptist). so we kinda shared a message about our church and gave her a card. she told us she would like us to come back after she checked out the website (mormon.org) and written down a few questions. she said to give her two weeks. so i thought it was prety cool that the Lord blessed us with someone after having no success that passed like four days. and later on that day we went to contact this referral that this guy (mormon guy sells security systems) gave us a while ago. we stopped by, knocked on her door and she answered. we were just planning on setting up a better time to come back but before we could say anything she said that she would get another chair so we could sit down. it was funny when she went back in E. Martinos looked at me and said "oh yeah, we're doing this" meaning we we're gonna teach her the first lesson. which we did. and we got a return appointment for thursday. so right now she's our top investigator, her name is Wendy. I hope all that stuff made sense. but yeah, missionary work is a roller coaster, you lose an investigator then you gain some more then something else bad happens, then something good, it's crazy. Oh and then later that night E. Martinos called up this other referral we had and he answered and we set up a time to meet with him. so a really bad day turned out to be a really good one.
oh, ya know what else is crazy about missionary work? how some people just open up and tell you stuff. it has happend a bunch of times. i don't know why. i guess because we're missionaries and we really don't have many people to tell((and now i'm posting this guys story on a blog)). but yeah, the most recent one was at this guys house. he's a less-active member and is like 22 years old. well we were talking with him and we started talking about missions. well he said he really wishes he went on a mission and how he was getting prepared to go and stuff but he made some bad choices and he stayed. he said he still wants to go on a mission but he didn't know if he still could. i'm guessing he still has some worthiness issues. so we're gonna try to work with him and see if we can help him get on a mission. crazy huh? well that's basically the highlights of my week.
oh, and a couple days ago we ran into this guy tracting, and he wanted to bash with us. this guy actaully bashed with E. Martinos before (E. M. talked with this guy when he was walking outside somewhere a while ago). but yeah, we knock, he answers and is like Oh you again..talking about E.M. (E.M. didn't know this guy lived here). so he says he looked and studyed the mormon religion and he said we were wrong blah, blah, blah, and so we tried to explain to him some stuff. well, this guy told us that we were wrong because we believe that God has a body of flesh and bone. so E.M. bashed with him and they started going at it. it was fun to watch haha. Afterwards E.M. was really ticked off because the guy was sort of a jerk. but yeah, i thought it was funny. people always say that we're wrong and stuff but they just have no idea. i'm trying to love the people but sometimes they are just so dumb. anyway the church is true.

((maria needed kyle's favorite scripture for his home ward so this is what he wrote))
It is such a hard decision there are a ton that i like. I think i told you this already but i love 2 nephi 29 especially vs. 3 and 6. i like 2 nephi 25:26 yeah that one is way good. i don't know, right now i just don't know there are too many. if i had to pick one i think it would either be like 3 nephi 11:3 or vs. 11.

anyways, that's about all elder pierce wrote. i'm sorry i have taken a while to write on this blog.
he hasn't sent any pics lately but i think he will send some on monday. i'm excited for that. and i'll try to put them on here.
-carly

Pictures...

2008-07-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

Kyle finally sent me his memory card full of pictures. Most are from the MTC... the last few are from Virginia and the Mission Home. Enjoy.

MTC... boys will be boys...

looks like kyle was a little confused on how to do his laundry... haha

looks like they were playing some game and kyle WON!

is this what they do at the MTC?

the map!

Kyle's MTC district

leaving the MTC

VIRGINIA...

Reenactment of Joseph Smith (i think this is a really cool picture.)

kyle's companion and the part...

Letters to Dad...

2008-07-23T13:06:00.001-07:00

A few excerpts from dads letters :

July 15, 2008

"...oh another funny thing that happened yesterday. i met a guy that listens to
Benny Hin the televangelist, remember him. yeah we were walking to our car
to go tract and this guy calls us over. we go over and he starts asking
us questions. first he told us that he went to a mormon sacrament meeting but
he didnt like it because we dont jump up and down and yell at the top of our
lungs. we tried to explain that the spirit is reverence but he said we need to
be excited and yell. he then asked if we ever watched benny hin and i was like
yeah i have heard him before and he was like yeah that guy has the spirit. he
said that Benny Hin touched him on the forehead and he blacked out for a
second i wish you were there. anyway we talked to him for like 30 mins and he was
really nice. we asked him to read and pray about the book of mormon but he said
that the spirit told him that he shouldnt and that he would pray for us to know
the truth. we bore our testimonies then left. you meet some interesting people
out here in VA. But its amazing everytime i talk to someone and they try to
tell me that we are wrong for some crazy reason (they never have a good reason,
its almost always polygamy) it makes my testimony grow even more because i know
that this is the only true church and that we have a fulness of the gospel.
Anyway im doing good, just starting to get the gist of things and there is
still a ton that i have to learn but im doing good..."

July 22, 2008

" ... yesterday i was actually talkin about the yankees with one of the members (bro bush). he is a yankee fan so we get along great haha...
...It is really hot here. the temperature yesterday was
like 95 degrees and very humid so yeah its pretty hot. i tracted for like 5
hours yesterday and i was sweating but we got one new investigator out of it so
i guess it was worth it. i have taught like 4 lessons to investigators since i
have been here and quite a few lessons to less actives and members. i love
visiting the members homes because everyone likes the missionaries haha. the
members are fun; some are lazy and dont want to help us out sometimes but there
are
some that are just awesome. the work started out pretty rough out here. when
i got here we had like only 1 investigator and we weren't getting any
referrals from members, but we had a really good week last week so hopefully we
get some people baptized. we now have like 5 or 6 investigators that we are
teaching. its amazing how the lords works. He tries your patience and then if
you endure it well he rewards you. lets see what else we eat at a members home
like 3-4 times a week i would say and the food is usually really good. we are
in car but last week i went on exchanges with an elder in a bike area so i got
to bike for that whole day (i like having a car way better). there are like 71
areas with car and only like 8 areas with bike so hopefully ill be in a car for
most of my mission..."

MTC Map and Friends...

2008-07-18T10:59:00.000-07:00

2008-07-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

Elder Pierce and Elder Green in front of the Provo Temple
His whole District
Elder Pierce and Elder Green at the RC
Kyle ran into some friends from St.George. Elder Quinn and Elder Wilson

4th letter (July 4, 2008)

2008-07-10T13:33:00.000-07:00

excerpts from 4th letter

well i'm here in VA, finally. I met the mission president and wife and i also met the A.P.'s, they are all very nice. so far i was picked up from the airport and then went to the mission home. then we ate and took pictures. i have a couple of interviews tonight. i don't know who my comp. is or my area until tomorrow. tomorrow i go to my area and start preaching, pretty exciting! FYI my p-day is on Tuesday now.
well i don't really know what else to say except i'm really well and excited to serve. I love you all.

Mission President's Letter:

We were pleased to welcome your son, Elder Kyle David Pierce, to the Virginia Richmond Mission. We love him already and are aware of his great potential to be an excellent missionary. He spent one day with us receiving orientation, and he is in good health and good spirits. His drive and determination will be of tremendous help as he joins a wonderful group of missionaries already serving the Lord in this area. Elder Pierce has been assigned to the Chesterfield Zone. His first companion, Elder Jacob Michael Martinos, is an excellent missionary who will do an outstanding job training your son for his service to the Lord.

All mail and parcels should be sent directly to your missionary. His new address is: 11700 Lake Falls Dr. Apt. 401 Chester, Virginia 23831.

We invite you and your family members to read The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, while your missionary is in the field. As you prayerfully and earnestly read this book, you will increase your understanding and faith in the plan of our Heavenly Father.

We are thankful for the part you played in preparing Elder Pierce to serve this mission, and we are honored to serve with him. Enclosed is a photo we took upon his arrival at the Mission Home(above). May the Lord abundantly bless you as you supposrt him in this call.

Sincerely, President Mark B. Millburn

3rd letter (June 26, 2008)

2008-07-10T13:20:00.002-07:00

excerpts from 3rd letter

I really can't wait to get to VA and teach what i know. I still like i have a lot to learn, but i'll definitly be ready when the time comes.

I FOUND OUT I CAN CALL HOME FROM THE AIRPORT! sometime during the day.

I'm doing really well at the MTC. my whole distric got sick for a little bit, but we're all better now.

sunday we had a member of the seventy (Stephen B. Allen)speak to us about missionary work. my whole district was so pumped that we sang all the way back to our residence and when we got home we sang all seven verses of Poor Wayfarring Man of Grief.

the spirit was so stron on Tuesday because we were able to hear from Elder Hales, Holland, Perry, and Christopherson.

2nd letter (June 19, 2008)

2008-07-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

excerpts from 2nd letter

It's my first p-day today! i really don't have as much time as i thought...

I can't believe it's already been a week. they have a saying here "the days seem like weeks and the weeks seem like days." it is so true.

I have had a bunch of spiritual experiences. let me tell you one that happened yesterday. in class we were talking about teaching with power rather than just teaching. so to learn how to teach with power my teacher Bro. Billings made us go outside and each a short version of lesson 1to random people. and he wanted us to do it with power. so as we were walking outside, i was trying to think of what to say to these people that i was about to talk to, but i couldn't think of anything. so elder green and i went out and we saw a teacher walking, so we stopped him ( i still had no idea what i was going to say).

anyway, elder green started off by sharing a little bit of the restoration, oh by the way the teacher we stopped looked really frustrated that we stopped him. so like i said elder green started and then when he was about done i was stressed because i still didn't know what to say. but elder green finished and it was my turn to talk. i was still stressing out but then i thought of something my teacher said. he said to teach with power we have to make sure we bare our testimony. so that's what i did, i started to bare my testimony about joseph smith and man, the spirit was so strong. as i was testifying the words just began to flow, it was so cool. the spirit was so strong that my eyes started to water up along with my comp's eyes and the teacher we were teaching. we all felt it, it was crazy.

it turns out that that guy was having a bad day and he told us this, "elders i was having a rough day until now, but hearing you elders teach made my day."

Elder Pierce first letter

2008-06-16T16:06:00.000-07:00

Elder Pierce wrote a three page letter!!!! at the end of the first day. He said that his first day was filled with orientations and each lasted two hours. He said he liked the steak and mashed potatoes (that's a good thing because he is a picky eater) and filet mignon is his favorite meal.

Then he said that his companion is Elder Green Kevin's comments were "what happen to elder Red" ha ha Elder Green is from bountiful Utah and he is going to the same mission. He is in a group of ten six of them going to Virginia and the other four to Hawaii. He said he is settling very well and that he already feels that he is going to love missionary work!! He also said that he knows that this is what the Lord wants him to do and not to worry because the Lord will protect him.

That was all for his first letter he is very busy and enjoying every minute of it. he said he will have more time to write next week on Thursday P-day.

MTC Bound... 3 weeks til Virginia...

2008-06-16T14:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, Kyle officially entered the MTC on June 11th. Here are a few pictures i took...
He wrote mom a few days ago saying that he is in a district with 8 missionaries, 4 are going to Virginia and 4 going to Hawaii...

Farewell...

2008-06-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Kyle gave his farewell talk on June 8th... It was a great talk with some funny jokes (he had the whole congregation laughing!). We are so proud of him and are excited to hear about his experiences and see him grow in the next two years... Farewell Kyle, enough said.

Welcome...

2008-06-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

To a Blog of Experience -- letters and photographs sent by Elder Pierce via friends and family ... with a few words of our own. Enjoy.

Elder Kyle Pierce serving for two years in the Richmond Virginia Mission for The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints.