Transfer 4: Week 4: S2

Happy New Year!

It is week 4 already and I feel like we started yesterday... missions go by pretty fast. I enjoyed talking to the family and having fun with my friends on my birthday. (Sister Bruno took me out to eat real Brazilian food, which was pretty good, I might add ... I'm learning how to make cheese bread today) Since Sister Bruno is a District leader I've had lots of opportunities to work with other missionaries on Temple Square The Sister I end up with the most is Sister Rosenberg from Finland. We have too much fun; sometimes we have so much we joke around and call it the Apostasy... We talk to loads of Floridians who have Finnish ancestors though, which is interesting because there can't be too many of them there. They all come up to ski in Utah every year though, apparently. They are fun and we work well together, so it's even more fun.

For some reason they also had me go on exchanges (mission lingo for switching companions without making Mission president angry) with the first transfers (other missions call them greenies, but our mission never picked that phraseology up for some reason). I was with Sister Harris for two hours while her trainer got some amazing training. There are two things you have to know about Sister Harris though 1. that she is a convert whose parents aren't the happiest that she's on a mission right now and 2. that we're both in the same major at BYU and didn't realize it until that day, we've had the same classes together and everything (Whoops!). If anyone needed further proof that Microbiologists in general are absent minded they got it. We met a lot of fun people from Utah and got two members to let us call their best friends. I also got to chat with my organ buddy from summer who is moving out to Pennsylvania today and discovered that we are both Isaiah fans. We shared scriptures and now I have a fun new one for me to share with members (Isaiah 9:2 or 2 Nephi 19:2 for anyone interested).

I am excited for the New Year, it always feels so fresh to start new with January, and the nice white snow is definitely helping with that imagery. Hopefully everyone finds great new year’s goals to help them progress into the people they want to become. I am excited to write mine down and look and see how much I'll have accomplished by the end of the year. (and the end of my mission, yikes!)

Thanks for all of the Christmas and birthday gifts... I feel like I'll only have to go shopping for food when I run out of vegetables and fruit now. (or when I want to learn how to make crazy Pakistani or Brazilian food yum!)

Sister Pielstick from Temple Square

Merry Christmas from Temple Square

Feliz Natal!

(Merry Christmas in Portuguese)

This is certainly the most wonderful time of the year. The lights are brilliant, the people happy (for the most part), and there should be snow by the end of tonight. I am excited to see what is going on for Christmas here on Temple Square... Sister Inoue is pretty excited about everything that is planned, and Thanksgiving was fun, too.

There are also a lot of miracles because there are some amazing member missionaries out there this Holiday season. For every three or four who just walk past us saying "oh, we're members" we get some real gems. One little boy, who was about three in a green dinosaur t-shirt, had a fun talk with me about being a missionary and giving books of Mormon to people all over the world. He told his daddy to give one to a neighbor, it was really sweet. A pretty good missionary at three, I want to see how much better he will be at 19. Sister Bruno and I also got to take a fun group of 11 year olds through Temple Square. They were all so different, but they all loved stories so I told them how important it is to read the scripture stories... in front of the Nativity here on Temple Square with the wise men.

Think about how much studying and pondering it took for those wise men to find out where Jesus Christ was to be born. Then they had to take up their belongings for a long journey on only the promise of the scriptures. They were probably looked down upon by their peers, they probably had to spend night upon night looking up at the stars for the new star to appear, but it was worth it because in the end they found the Savior. How much effort are we willing to put in to find the Savior in our own lives? Are we willing to study every day? Are we willing to give up prestige or power to seek him out?

I was talking with President Holmes the other day and he gave me some scriptures to read, I thought you'd like to have them as well.

Luke 2

1 Nephi 11

Helaman 14

3 Nephi 1

I am focusing this Christmas on how much I am willing to do to find the Savior and follow his guidance. I hope that this Christmas you can think about how you are actively seeking out the Savior. (It really is the most wonderful time of the year)

Best Regards!

Sister Pielstick

Transfer 4: Week 2; South 2

Hello everyone!

I hope this Christmas season is fun for everyone; every night here it gets crazier and crazier... too many people and not enough time to talk to everyone. Sister Bruno seems to attract every RM from Brazil that exists on the Square. Portuguese is a very odd language to listen to, it sounds like a hybrid mix of Spanish and Italian. It's harder to follow than Japanese. There haven't been too many memorable people that I've talked to so far in this transfer, so it's rather difficult for me to think of any fun experiences this time around. There was one man who thought my companion was attractive and tried to ask her out at Wal-Mart, but other than that we've been trying to figure out what it is we're supposed to be doing now that we are teaching.

We're starting to teach people now, which is an exciting adventure. My first teaching appointment I accidentally called someone's grandchildren 'evil' instead of 'even'. At least she thought it was funny. We teach until the person meets with the missionaries, and then I have no idea what happens next. After that... I have no idea: we've never gotten that far. We have a fun world map where you can see who has been contacted by missionaries and are being taught by the missionaries. (even some baptisms and the whole mission's been doing this or a week now) It's fascinating to see how everything works out here on the mission now that so much has changed. I'm thankful we have some top notch leaders this transfer who can sort everything out; there is a lot of scheduling to be done here in the mission. In case anyone was wondering (I know I sure was) South 2 means where our teaching phones are located, so now I spend half my day in the basement of the South Visitor Center teaching people all over the North American Continent. (we could teach anywhere in the world, but everyone we're teaching thus far are from the US and Canada)

Temple Square has snow again, so the lights look like a winter wonderland. President Holmes, Sister Doggett, and I were talking about the lights and realized that with over 700,000 lights it's almost how many families are in the church right now. Funny how there are so few lights on so few trees (they alternate putting the lights on the larger trees here, and the biggest trees are dark this year) but you don't notice because of how bright the lights on the other trees shine. The same is true of our families in the world. Who cares if there are not as many lights around your area, that doesn't mean that you put out your light to fit in with everyone else, it means that you try to let everyone else light theirs. It would be pretty amazing, no?

Hope that all is calm and bright!

Sister Pielstick

Transfer 4: week 1: South 2 Zone

Hello!

I'm sure this letter took just about everyone by surprise. Thursday p-day is definitely different. At least Wal-Mart was pretty much empty and there were no lines at the checkout (a miracle in and of itself).

My new companion is Sister Bruno from Brazil, she's very crafty and loves to make everything look nice. She also enjoys testifying all about the Gospel. She'll stop anyone in the street and if she feels like it is awkward, she'll testify and bring the Spirit so that it's not so awkward anymore. Sister Doggett went off to be a zone leader, so now Sister Bruno's hoping that the same fate doesn't await her.

The entire mission has changed here, instead of 6 zones we have 8 and there are so many different ways to share the gospel now it is insane. We now are able to teach the people we meet on Temple Square and let them know more about Jesus Christ. We are able to teach until the missionaries come into contact with them, which sounds amazing... I just have to figure out a whole new set of missionary skills that I haven't used since the MTC. It makes for an interesting new way to look at people; you want to teach them just enough so they want to learn more... but don't feel overwhelmed with the new information. There are other aspects of the mission that I haven't figured out yet, but everything here is definitely changing.

I did have one last miracle to share that I had with Sister Doggett. Zone leaders have a lot of training that they need in order to become such. The last week we had together, Sister Doggett and I had hardly any success because we weren't on Temple Square much. However, the short time we were on the square gave us so many miracles, Heavenly Father does not joke around with blessings. If you serve him as best you can he will pour you out a blessing that you may not be able to receive it. Every time we were on Temple Square we found someone who was prepared, someone who either wanted to know more about the gospel or people who just walked up to us with friends they thought would love to learn more about Jesus Christ. We even met an amazing lady from Holland who was the sweetest, friendliest, nicest European that I had ever met during my time here. I hope that she loves the missionaries as much as they are going to love her.

I'm sure I'll have miracles with Sister Bruno, but as we have been together for just one day nothing yet... I'm still figuring out how to fill out paperwork and work the conference calls. Oh well, just as I thought I had figured everything out they change everything up on me.

Love you,

Sister Pielstick

Transfer 3: Extended Zone: Week 6

Life is good here, Sister Doggett just got her hair cut by a crazy Malasian and I found a new green jacket that just needs a button sewn back on to be pretty close to my favorite tweed jacket I left behind.

This week has been amazing, I forgot how much I love talking to BYU students until they all decided to come onto Temple Square yesterday night with their Wards. I never realized that time was moving on so fast, in my head it is still the week before Thanksgiving. Then of course I discovered the magic that is the Joseph Smith movie, I love the spirit that that movie brings to the people here on Temple Square. We were assigned to contact people who were going to it and it was amazing to have people stop and talk to you rather than you stopping and talking to them. It was amazing.

Take that fun evening and add to it the newfound proficiency I have found in the Beehive House and I've been doing great this week. Hopefully I won't get too distracted by the Transfer conference that is happening on MONDAY. Can you believe it? So many people are coming back and we're getting 27 sisters in from the MTC. There are going to be trainers out the wazoo. Then of course we are starting to teach the people we talk to here on Temple Square and on the phones... which is going to be an exciting experience.

I've not seen many people who I know, but interestingly enough every other Utahn I've met knows where I'm from which is pretty awesome, but odd when they start chatting about the shopping or the beach while forgetting that we're standing outside in FREEZING weather. oops, live and learn I guess. And now I am famous in the mission for Swing dancing because someone had a jazzified version of Go Tell It on the Mountain and I couldn't help myself with the dancing.

That's what a mission is for, right? Trying new things and helping others come closer to Jesus Christ?

Hope this season is wonderful!

Sister Pielstick