Last Prep Day was Really Lame

I think I am going to dedicate this letter to everyone who is free from school and work for the summer!-

Well the week went by pretty fast for us here. I can’t remember anything super cool that happened, but luckily it’s all written down in my planner so I can just look back and give you the highlights from my week. The weather has gotten warmer that is the good news; the bad news is these white shirts are giving me a TERRIBLE tan line really high on my neck and on my arms. It’s pretty funny when just your face and arms get tan... but what can you do... we have to make sacrifices to get blessing right?! I guess I’ll just jump into my letter!

Last Preparation Day was really lame, probably one of the worst ever, but what can you do it is bound to happen sometimes. Plus, now I can just appreciate the good so much more after seeing the bad. The plan was to go get my second fitting for my suit, but the tailor wasn’t ready... hopefully he is ready today. Then we went to play basketball at this cool indoor gym in Yerevan that some Persians told us about... but it was full and we couldn’t. We then went to find an outdoor court and it rained. So we gave up on Basketball and decided to do internet. At the normal place the power was out, and then another one we went to was full. Elder Gull and I had had enough, so since we had to cut our Preparation Day short anyway we just went back to Davtashen, did internet and sat around our apartment. That was actually pretty relaxing, so I don’t really have much to complain about. After Preparation day was tough too, everything just kept falling through, even the stuff we had planned and we ended up just visiting Vazgen at the end of the night. It was good to be on the streets though, we gotta find the elect!

Tuesday was a pretty good day, but we lost a lot of it since we had to travel down to Ararat for District Meeting. That is such a fun Bus trip, nothing like standing in a hot bus for about an hour and 15 minutes, with a bunch of people staring at you the whole time. I really just think that kind of stuff is going to be the funniest memories looking back on my mission. The District Meeting went well, Elder Gull and I did it and we decided just to get people excited for the work here in Armenia. We ended up watching this movie called “An Ensign to the Nations” which is all about how the church has just grown and exploded around the world, it was about 1 hour and then afterwards we talked about it and just tried to get people excited so we can add our own chapter concerning Armenia to this history of growth in the church. It turned out really well and I got excited and pumped so hopefully they all did too. My son made some really great comments, which made me happy, and overall it was just a good chance to imagine where the church in Armenia could be in a few years! The rest of the day was a lot of Finding, and then we met with our investigator Nara! We brought Lia, our Branch Missionary, to this meeting with us so it wouldn’t be as awkward and it turned out to be a really good meeting. We taught a 3rd lesson and really focused on what is needed for Baptism. The Spirit was really strong and the lesson was great. The 3 of us were teaching really well together and it just seemed like everything went right. Afterwards Elder Gull and I were even talking about how we had never taught a 3rd using those examples or doing those things before, but it just worked great! I love meetings like that, you just feel like a great tool in the hands of the Lord!

Wednesday, after our trial of faith the first 2 days of the week we started getting meetings again and had some good things happen. We almost picked up 3 new investigators from 3 separate meetings, but it didn’t quite work out... we will get them next time though! The day started out with us meeting the Assistants to get our Zone Conference ready. We want to switch things up so rather than give 2 talks, we decided to put our time together and we are going to play a hopefully fun Jeopardy like game about concerns we run into as missionaries, I will be sure to let you all know how it goes next week. After English class we had a good meeting with Ashot, a guy who comes to class. He said he was an Atheist, but then told us stories of times when he has prayed and things worked out for him. I think he is just a bit mixed up about everything, so we committed him to read some things from the Book of Mormon and really try to find out if there is a God, then hopefully next time we meet him we can pick him up as a new investigator. After that Center brought over a guy they have taught a couple times who goes to their English Class but lives in our area. He seemed cool, but he said he didn’t have a ton of time right now to meet since he is trying to get a job... but he did seem sincere so maybe we can meet up with him and pick him up as a new investigator this week. Finally we visited a member Vika who had a referral for us and the plan was to contact the referral that day with her, but it didn’t work out so hopefully next time we can do it. Something really weird happened in that meeting though, she just told us how good we looked today and then asked us what she could do to please us... we didn’t know how to answer so we just told her to play the piano... so awkward, but so funny!

On Thursday we had a really good meeting with Mher’s Mom Emma, one of our investigators, but we feel like a lot of it went over her head. She knows pretty much nothing about church things, so telling her all the stuff about the Restoration and things probably overwhelm her. We had Lia there helping us, but we will have to see how much she can remember next time we meet with her, hopefully today! The important thing was just encouraging her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, if she remembers nothing else from the lesson I hope it’s that. This week our plan to help her out is to just talk about Prophets and Scriptures and what they are and then watch the Restoration movie to review a bit about Joseph Smith. It should be good though because she is willing to listen and seems pretty sincere about everything! We also met with Mamikon and tried to pick up his wife as a new investigator... it didn’t work, but there is progress, I think she wants to join the church, she just has a hard time coming to church since she has leg problems and can’t sit very long. She has already read the Book of Mormon... I am sure we will get her to come around eventually!

Friday nothing too interesting happened, we just went down to Malatia and did a Baptismal interview with one of their investigators. He passed! I got to do the interview and had a really great time and a good experience with him. He is a big stud, the husband of a member, and I think that getting baptized is going to be great for their family!

Saturday was just meetings as usual, we did have a good meeting with this member Susan and her son though on Preserving the Heart’s Mighty Change, a talk from November 09 conference and it seemed to really help us all. Lia was able to help us a lot too with some personal examples she had after her conversion to keep the mighty change in her heart always going. I really enjoyed that talk and that meeting, it really shows that it only takes doing the little things regularly to keep us spiritually healthy and moving forward in the gospel.

Sunday, yesterday was a pretty good day. Church went well, we had a random guy show up whom we didn’t pick up as a new investigator, but we did get his number and are going to be meeting with him, hopefully tomorrow to teach a 1st. He stayed for all 3 hours of church and then later that evening when we had a Seminary/Institute activity at our Branch he came to that too! It should be sweet; he is a 26-year old man who could be a great Priesthood holder for our branch! We also went to that Seminary/Institute Branch Activity since our Branch President asked us too and it was really good! We got to watch my favorite seminary video on Free Agency... that was translated into Armenian, and then we got to listen to a great lesson by President Poghosyan! It was a good experience and I think that our soon to be new investigator really enjoyed it since he was signing up for institute classes for next semester afterward!!! Overall it was just another great Sunday. Oh, I almost forgot the great news... we finally got new Gospel Principles Manuals in Armenian yesterday!!! They only arrived 5.5 months late! They are really cool and nice though... I think they are going to be a great help so all our members become firmer in the faith!

Well that was my week! I finished the Book of Mormon again this week, which is exciting; I have really just come to love that book a ton on my mission. It seems like it has so much power and I get pumped to start it again when I finish. I’m going to be taking a small break though to finish off the Doctrine and Covenants and then I will be back to the Book of Mormon. I regret not appreciating the scriptures more before my mission, I always found time to read them a bit and I enjoyed that, but I never appreciated them like this. I see all the growth I have had in knowledge and understanding from reading the scriptures on my mission and I just wonder how much more growth I could have had if I would have studied them before my mission too. I guess there is no reason to dwell on the past but I definitely have a goal to continue, “feasting on the word’s of Christ” when I come home.

I can’t think of too much else and this is starting to get long so I guess I will bring this letter to a close. I will write again next week. You will all get a Zone and District Conference report then! I hope you all have a magnificent week!

Love,
Elder Piercy