Transfer 3: Week 5; Extended Zone

Merry Christmas!

The lights are on and Temple Square is so BUSY. Admittedly it is slow during the day (4 or 5 visitors if we are lucky) but as soon as the lights turn on it is busier than Conference! There are a million visitors expected from now until January. I hope that I can survive the winter here, but there is plenty of exciting news here at Temple Square.

Thanksgiving was nice (a dinner and karaoke with Disney songs and Toy Story 3) and then we had one day to prepare for the lights and the large number of people that come here. We visited with over 50 people in one night. Crazy, right? And there were plenty of people who were willing to share with us their stories of their conversions, their missions, and their families (little kids are cute that way).

I don't have a lot of time for writing today, it's our first P-day in the morning and the time seems to fly faster and the building where we do our e-mail closes early and opens late. But there is exciting news for next transfer... next transfer our mission is making the change to become a finding AND teaching mission. We will be able to find people on Temple Square or on the phones and teach them until they meet with the missionaries. This is crazy because we have just been finding people for the missionaries before this transfer, never keeping track of them so when we sent a referral we never know what happens next. This time we are allowed to teach them and find out if they get baptized as time goes on. I am so excited. It means that we need to work and learn two whole different sets of skills here on Temple Square, but it also means that more people are getting to know the gospel.

I hope that everyone is planning on having a wonderful Christmas season because I am looking forward to the Christmas devotional (we get to see it in person as a whole mission). I wish I had more time, but I have to go and sing in the temple square choir.

Love,

Sister Pielstick

Transfer 3:Week 4; Extended Zone

This week has been crazy... P-day snuck up on me yet again.

Life here at Temple Square is pretty crazy; the grounds crews are working hard to get the lights up in time for next Friday when they turn them all on. There haven't been that many people around, but there have been some fun miracles. There are families that are great member missionaries (they help the missionaries in their area any way they can & people who have friends or family members for us to call) Calling people is probably my favorite part of missionary work right now... I have been able to talk to college football players, mothers, and devoted employees and have a lot of fun getting to know them. I just wish that I could get to know people a little bit better because it's hard at times to get to know someone so well and then just not call them back.

This week has been pretty amazing -as weeks go. Started off with a devoted member missionary who I met while at an art exhibit of Altar paintings at BYU, followed by missionary training in a Historic mansion in Downtown Salt Lake, topped off with a testimony meeting in the Conference Center, and completed with a trip backstage to see the choir loft. Our mission is pretty unique, opportunities to meet people from around the world as well as chances to meet Apostles randomly as you go to your various assignments.

Not much else to say, as you can tell I've been working this week on being brief and clear. Apparently people are more likely to listen when you don't say much, so I'm trying to talk less and listen more. So far it's led to amazing stories from guests about things from meeting their spouse in South Africa, to escaping the Soviet Union (and a very long conversation with a 9 year old about how to avoid being bitten by a rattle snake) It's funny how many different things can be tied into the gospel. It's pretty amazing to see.

Hope all is well with everyone, as there haven't been as many people visiting from Florida (or BYU, or much of anywhere I've been) from whom I can glean my information.

Regardless, the temple's still here, the gospel's still true and Jesus is still the Christ, so life can't be all that bad. (even if there are snow storms involved.)

Sister Pielstick

Transfer 3: Week 3; Extended Zone

Hello!

There have been a lot of fun things happening around here (Although I am sad that we have had the last of our binary days for this year ... next year are the last possible binary days for this century so look out for them). The Christmas decorations are up and I am looking forward to Thanksgiving where there are going to be tons of people around here for the lights.

When it is cold outside I am grateful to be assigned at the BeeHive house. We are getting a lot of people from the chemical engineering conference and I am thoroughly enjoying myself out here right now... imagine me connecting chemistry to the gospel and learning about proteins used in the study of Alzheimer’s disease... I was just in heaven right then and there. Benam from Persia was really a delight to answer questions, even though we couldn't invite him to learn more about the gospel. He was fascinated by the temple and about our devotion to God... he just didn't think that he would have time to get to know God and study any science.

The members who visit the Beehive house are pretty amazing. I may still feel a little worried around little kids, but I am completely at home with the youth groups that come through. Brigham's conversion story really brings in the spirit; there was one group of girls who were in a show choir (like Glee, one of them said) and they came through and they felt the spirit so strongly when we explained to them about his conversion: how one person's simple testimony converted a man who eventually became a prophet of God. Imagine their surprise when we also answered the one question they had at the beginning of the tour by showing them the room where that the scripture was revealed. It was an amazing experience. I am grateful for their leaders taking the time to make a spiritual experience instead of all of the scavenger hunts that we're seeing as of late. The hunts are fun, but the fun spiritual experiences are what they are going to remember for a lifetime.

So much fun though, remember who you are and what it means to be a missionary. (because everyone really is one)

Sister Pielstick

Transfer 3: Zone Extended: Week 2

Hello!

This week has been crazy, it definitely doesn't seem like it has been a week. Wow! The Beehive House is becoming more powerful as I've finally mastered the history to the point where I am comfortable changing up the facts I share every time I go through the house. History and pioneer stories have a mind of their own sometimes (and hyperactive Utah fans are hilarious BTW). Sometimes I mess things up, but Sister Doggett seems to have an infinite well of patience coming from somewhere. (I haven't found the source, but hopefully she'll teach me how to get that source because I am certainly still as impatient as ever)

We've had a lot of fun member missionaries who came and visited the house. Even though people who live in Utah don't have a lot of friends to invite to meet with the missionaries, they still try their hardest to find ways to serve others. There are also a lot of people here seeking to find out their heritage, which is interesting because President Holmes added the family search center to our mission. This is exciting, also, because our boundaries are small as it is and we definitely appreciate the increase to the area we have to take the guests. It's exciting to see how we'll be able to let people realize that genealogical research builds perfectly to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It makes me a little excited because now I am learning more about how immigrants came into the USA. There are some amazing stories.

Service is the best thing, especially if that service means taking down a haunted village, which we did on Wednesday. With most missions you have to do a certain number of hours of service per week, at Temple Square there are too many of us so we're lucky if we get to do service once every six weeks. We got to take down the haunted pirate ship, it was awesome. Then surprise, surprise we started putting out the Christmas decorations. Which is crazy to me, but for big places things like Christmas decorations are planned as early as May. Eeek! Now that's scary.

We're having fun, and still searching for a pair of attractive AND warm boots for winter because the first lasting snow is expected next week. As much as I'd like to imagine that the warmth of the Holy Ghost can keep me from frostbite here on Temple Square, other sisters have told me that I will, in fact, need to wear boots and gloves to stay warm when the Christmas lights turn on. So much for a Floridian's hope for the warm weather to continue.

Hope this letter finds everyone in good spirits,

Sister Pielstick