This one is going out to all the followers!-
Well, it is hard to believe that these emails I have been writing for so long are coming to a close... I have to admit, I am a bit happy about that. Writing letters is fun for a little bit, but then it almost turns into a chore. I am willing to keep writing for a little longer though so that all my fans can see me finish strong! All is well in the AYM, we had some excitement this week I will report on so, I guess I will just start the letter.
Last Monday after Preparation Day, we were actually able to get a meeting in before Family Home Evening, since we cut Preparation Day a bit short (I will explain why later). We met with Bella and helped her plan a bit and get ready for the Lake Sevan Branch Activity on August 4th! Basically we just found a bunch of questions we can ask people about the Book of Mormon for a game. Then our FHE was really fun. We did a spiritual thought on Moral Agency... a talk Elder Christoffersen gave a while ago and overall I think it was interesting and helpful for everyone. I also made some brownies as refreshments so we pounded chocolate brownies... with frosting, and Banana juice... so good! Then finally this week instead of doing a game, we just watched a movie. Our members made the choice and they chose "Ice Age 3" it looked pretty funny and they laughed a lot, but I had no idea what was being said... it was in Russian. I feel like it was a really good FHE overall. Just as a side note, I've turned into quite a baker, for tonight's FHE I made Banana Bread this morning... so good!
Last Tuesday we went down to Artashat for District Meeting. Elder Gull and I did the meeting. We decided to talk about commitments because it always seems to be something we can do well. Whether it is just always giving a commitment or being more bold and clear with commitments, whatever, there is always room for improvement. We did a repeat of something I learned from Elder Wolfley way back in the early days of my mission... "The Spiritual Kiss of the Dragon" and I made a few additions to make it even better. It is basically just a step by step process of giving a commitment to kill the natural man in our investigators and members. It was fun because as I was demonstrating the move, I got to give my son a wet-willy! After that District Meeting I stayed down in Artashat for an exchange with Elder Larson. We had a good time together and Elder Larson is a really cool, interesting Elder. I have never been on an exchange with him, or been in Artashat, so it was lots of new stuff. It is really, really hot in Artashat though. I have a new respect for the missionaries down there. The other difficult thing was our meetings didn't work out too well so we ended up just walking a lot. We got to talk to some cool people though, including a woman who lived in America for 30 years got sick of it and came back to Artashat, Armenia. Plus, we also got to talk with Elder Minasyan for a bit which was pretty cool too. It was a good exchange, but going back to comfortable Yerevan was nice. The best news was Elder Gull and Elder Andersen met with that lady from the streets, Larisa, and picked her up as a new investigator!
Wednesday morning after we switched back and I was with Elder Gull again we had a pretty good day. We got to meet with Emma, Mher's Mom, and had a really good lesson with her. We finished watching "The Testaments" and then were just bearing testimony about Christ and the Book of Mormon and stuff. It was super powerful and cool because the Menu on the disc plays "This is the Christ" so that was playing in the background during all of this. I felt the spirit really strong and I hope she did too! I think she enjoyed the movie too, at the end after Christ appears to the Lamanites and heals the dad, she was crying, so it must have had a good effect on her!
Thursday we had a good meeting with some less actives, Zoya and Luiza, the best part was Luiza came to church on Sunday so it must have had a good effect on her! We also had a really good meeting with Smbat, one of our members who is just such a great guy! I like him a ton, I just wish he would grasp the gospel better and go at it with full heart. We decided next time we meet we will talk to him about diligence and really try to get that fire going in him to be the best member he can be!
Friday, we had a bit tougher day... our plans didn't work out too well, so we walked a lot. We did get to meet with the Navasardyans though, and that was a good meeting. Their daughter is actually coming home from her mission today if I remember correctly. That is so weird since she left about 6 months after me, but it makes sense too. I am excited to see how she will help her family and if she can really get them to love the gospel again.
Saturday was a cool day, we did our Weekly Planning Session like normal, but then we went to Vernisazh which is an art market in Yerevan that happens only on Saturday and Sunday. That is why we took time off our Preparation Day on Monday so we could go on Saturday. I ended up buying 3 things there and was pretty happy with all the purchases. We always hear about how missionaries get screwed because everyone just jacks up all the prices since we are Americans, but we had a good idea to avoid that. We had our member Lia come with us and she just walked behind us a bit and when we saw something we liked we would let her know, and then she would go barter down the price and buy it for us. I ended up getting things a lot cheaper than if I would have done it, so I was really appreciative of her help. I ended up buying a Nardi board that looks really nice, it is wood and has a picture of Ararat on it. I also bought a little wood thing to hang on the wall that says "God bless our Home" only in Armenian. Then, the last thing I bought was a little Nativity thing made of wood that was really cool. I got everything I wanted and I really can't think of too much else to get before coming home. I really liked the market though and there was tons of cool stuff... I just don't know what I would do with any of it. I also found out this week that Elder Simonsen and Elder Stephenson were able to get me "The Hobbit" in Armenian in Vanadzor so I have that to add to my book collection now too! For the rest of our Saturday we met with Lia after the market and went through Preach My Gospel Chapter 3 Lesson 1 with her and just helped her prepare for her mission she will be going on soon. She is going to be a really great missionary and we actually found out she is going on a mini mission soon too, that will be so great for her! Our last meeting of the day was with Meri, which was great since she has been working so much lately, plus we were able to talk about some good scriptures from the end of 2 Nephi about being a good member and responsibility.
Sunday was a really great day! Church was soo good! We had Larisa, our investigator there, tons of members, and even quite a few less actives. It was the fullest I have seen Sacrament Meeting I think! All the talks and things were really great too, my favorite was President Poghosyan's talk on obedience which was really powerful and really good, I learned a ton! Larisa also got up and publicly apologized to everyone during Sunday school for ever thinking bad things about Mormons, because now she sees that we are good people. She really liked everything at church, the only problem is her husband might not let her come back. We are going to be praying for his heart to be softened so hopefully things work out well for her and she can embrace the gospel.
Overall, it was a really enjoyable week and we had a lot of good stuff happen. One new thing that started was since it is so hot in Armenia now, President Carter has made lunch 2 hours long on days when it is over 100 degrees so we can eat for an hour and then study Preach My Gospel for an hour. That is pretty cool, so we can just focus on the basics of PMG and not die in the heat. Also we don't do Nightly Phone calls anymore, which clears up our evening a lot, so those are 2 big changes that have happened this week.
Things are going well in Armenia, I love it, I love the people, and I love being a missionary. I hope you all have a great week, I hope this email was interesting, and I will be writing again next week!
Love,
Elder Piercy
Michael grew one inch while in the mission field (6'4") He lost 45lbs, he'll have to try and find them.
