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

Transfer 3; Week 1; Extended Zone

Happy Halloween family! (and friends too!)

Life is pretty slow here on the square (and temperatures are significantly cooler now) but I have good news I am indoors most of next transfer in the Beehive House. I am a little excited because I'll be there for the holiday season, but not when things get really hectic, so that is good. The Beehive House is the historic home of Brigham Young and it is currently under construction: the historians are having a hey-day with the pictures and other paraphernalia in the house and it's a little more interesting to do a tour because you never know when you'll run into a historian or a new item in a room that you've never seen before. It also means that we get to see President Holmes more often as he supervises the work and tries to get things moving along. (Which is nice because he sometimes brings us Lion House rolls and honey butter for our breaks)

My new Companion is Sister Doggett from Orem Utah/Boston, she's a neuroscience graduate who has done studies in Oxford England! Amazing, no? We have fun bridging to the Gospel in the Beehive House, which can be hard to intermingle the history with the basic beliefs. She just got back from her outbound assignment to Ventura, California which was a fun place, apparently. (Obviously I've never been there) She also drives so we're planning a lot of fun activities for P-day including seeing a haunted house put on by a pioneer park today. I'm a little excited. President Holmes was pretty excited about us being companions, which was reassuring when she came in late from the airport so I was companions with 7 people the day of transfers (including some good friends so I was happy). As fun as being with different companionships was, there is nothing like having your real companion and no worries about what she looks like or who she is.

Not many miracles this week, but I got to see Park City, the farthest assignment any sister missionary can have while at Temple Square. It is an amazing place where you can help people come closer to their ancestors and to Christ. It's such a nice place to go and see... I didn't want to be assigned there ever during my mission, but after seeing it (and the town reminds me of St Augustine with snow) I realized that even in a Family History Center, it would be fun.

I am looking forward to learning new things and improving everything this next six weeks. (and to the turning on of the Christmas lights!) Hope all is well with the family and friends.

Love,
Sister Pielstick

Transfer 2: Week 6; Cover Zone

Jumala rakastaa sinua! (Fininish)

Eek! I think that the scariest thing about this Halloween is that I'll be in my third transfer. It feels like yesterday I was at the MTC and about midmorning-ish I was with Sister Inoue... life moves fast around here. I can't imagine what it'll be like when it's Christmas. One of the sisters here told me that they trained in their third transfer; I hope I don't because I hardly know anything. Imagine two of us meandering around the square and trying to figure everything out, just me with a seasoned expert makes me feel like I am swimming in deep waters. Hopefully I'll manage to be afloat before the lights come on on Temple Square.

Things are definitely chillier here. But I am enjoying myself thoroughly, I've been able to explore a lot more of Temple Square because of the lack of guests so it's been rather fun. Also I've met some awesome members who come here regularly (or are here for weddings) who are so amazing at member missionary work. I want to be like them when I get home... to have friends who want to learn more about why we have so much hope. I've been talking to a bunch of people over the phone and it's fun to teach someone who is having a hard time that God loves them and still cares for them no matter what has happened to them or where they are at.

We've also had some people who leave their dogs tied up next to the visitor centers and Sister Newman loves going over and petting them. We had some dog miracles where we got to meet awesome families and people who were also congregating around the dog. We took them to see the Family presentation that the North Visitor center has, it was wonderful because we thought it was a normal family home evening activity and it turns out that they were showing dad around after he decided that after over 10 years of marriage he wanted to meet with the missionaries. He had been searching about it and seeing the blessings it had given his family and decided that he really did want his family to live together forever.

I'm also having fun with Sister Farmer and her companion Sister Mosio, they are a fun group who love to explore with Sister Newman and I. We're going to make sushi tonight for P-day. I hope that we are in the same zone next transfer so we can hang out again. It's going to be a blast as soon as it gets cold. It hasn't snowed yet, which is CRAZY! It's a blessing. And the leaves here are finally turning; I was beginning to think that they'd stay green FOREVER.

Live is good, the gospel is true... and I think that the book of Matthew was written for missionaries.

Love ya.
Sister Pielstick

Transfer 2: Week 5; Cover Zone

Hola!

This week has been an interesting one, to say the least. There have been fewer people around here, so it's been a bit of trouble finding people to talk to. However, there are more gardeners here putting in the tulips and the Christmas lights in time for Thanksgiving. It's hard to believe how many people work behind the scenes here at Temple Square to make everything gorgeous for the holidays (Easter and Christmas, not necessarily in that order though). There have been a lot of youth groups that come here for their young men and young women's activities. Imagine how amazing that would be, to live close enough that you could actually plan an activity to Temple Square. Some of the Youth just take it for granted and text during the entire thing, but some of them are drinking in every second of it, even though some of them may have grown up here.

There are always fun people to meet here. This last week we had 18 hours at a desk assignment, which means that the area that you cover gets limited to a single area (the 'desk' being the center of it). It's hard to really get to know people there, but I had a lot of fun talking to the many guests who came and visited with their families. There was a 'Fall break' here in Utah so there were a lot of stellar members who were fun enough to share a few mission stories and missionary experiences. I love talking to the little kids too, they know who Jesus is. One little girl was waiting for her parents to get out of the temple with her grandmother so she was playing at the map of Jerusalem. Her Grandmother was trying to make her understand what Jesus did at Gethsemane, and finally gave up saying that a 3 year old couldn't understand. I later heard that three year old explain,”Jesus was hurt there for us" to one of her older siblings who hadn't been paying attention earlier. Little kids are a lot smarter than we sometimes give them credit for. They are sponges for information, if I've forgotten where I am in a tour I can just ask them and they set me straight immediately about what I have and have not told them. I think it's great for an absent minded person like myself, and it makes the kids think about what they've been hearing.

We also got to start all of the church movies in the North Visitor center, which I thought was nothing short of a miracle in some cases. We had one Catholic lady who went and saw the Testaments movie and came out so touched by it she went immediately to Deseret Book to buy a copy of the movie and the Book of Mormon. She started telling us how she is trying to be a defender of all Christian Faiths, because she thinks it's silly for Christian churches to fight among each other when we're already being torn up from the outside. It was a fun conversation and she says that she's going to prove anyone wrong who claims that Mormons aren't Christian. Sometimes I wonder if non-members who love the Church do more help when they are not of our faith than in our faith. Because we met an amazing man who leads the huge tour buses here and he made sure that his guests know that Mormons are not polygamists and that he teaches everyone the truth about what the Mormons believe. (His wife is a member, and he learned his truth from the missionaries and general conference, so pretty awesome sources I think) If he only believed that you could know that there is a God...

Oh yes, funny joke from one Jewish couple that came through the Beehive house. So we were taking a tour of the Beehive house on Saturday (which is typical) They were talkative, but not very interested in the history of the church (even more typical). We were in the kitchen and the husband says (out of nowhere) "Do you want to hear a joke?". His wife rolls her eyes and tries to keep him from saying it, so we got nervous (Beehive house is a wonderful place for not so nice jokes). Then he surprises us with this:

So a Cardinal goes to the Pope and says " I have good news and bad news"
The Pope says, "well I'll hear the good news first"
"Well the good news is that Jesus Christ came again"
So the Pope says: "That's WONDERFUL news. What could possibly be the bad news?"
" He's calling from Salt lake City"

While it would be nice for everyone to want to learn more about our church, at least some people make being rejected a whole lot of fun.

Love until next week.
Sister Pielstick

General Conference (Transfer 2 Week 4 Cover Zone)

Hello!

Sorry for no new nifty languages this week, I'll do better next time promise. This week has been a rather crazy one. From General Conference to Christmas (which starts here Thanksgiving), it seems like there is not enough time for everything to get done here. Oi!

There were some amazing miracles, and the members are so nice during conference. Usually they try to avoid us, but this time they were more than willing to talk to us. And we had some amazing people, couples who had just joined the church and were getting sealed this week, people who had been on 4 or 5 missions together as a couple, people who were just starting school or just finishing it. There were amazing families of people who were listening to conference while they were eating lunch on the lawn... I enjoyed it. They also were able to let us call their friends, which is a huge trust that they put in us. I hope that I can talk to their friends and do the best I can. If the members were that amazing, I can't imagine how amazing their friends are going to be...

We also get to see only one session of General conference, which was sad because apparently this one was especially good. I saw the Saturday afternoon session and I was only 10 rows away from the pulpit (albeit I was also only 10 seats from the wall) and I loved Elder Scott's talk about Faith building character. I hope that all the faith I have to use is helping me build some sort of character... otherwise I am just sitting here on my mission learning nothing more than a few new ways to say hello/ how are you.

We've also had a couple of amazing people, Charlie was my personal favorite though, he is a water quality guy for the government and his tour was really fast. (Sister Newman likes short tours, but he likes them even shorter: we saw the three historic buildings and the North visitor center before most people stop gawking at the Tabernacle roof) But we had fun talking to him about Joseph Smith, which was funny because he wasn't interested in anything before, then he asked if he and his wife could learn more from the missionaries about the Book of Mormon. He then walked to the Book of Mormon displays and saw the Christus in the time it took us to get upstairs.

There isn't too much more to report here, except that temple square is now officially in slow season... which means that there are fewer people and that I have time to push more buttons and see all of the media that temple square has... someone told me that there is over 12 hours of material on just one floor, so I may be able to listen to everything before it gets too slow. :)

Love you all,
Sister Pielstick

Transfer 2: Week 3; Cover Zone

Bienvienue a Temple Square!

Conference is coming, are you ready for it? I'm not so sure, over 100,000 people are coming just for tomorrow. Eek! It's going to be crazy, but it'll be good. This week has been interesting, especially since our friends with the signs are enjoying coming to Temple Square to scope out the best places for the big two days. A lot of sisters have encountered them and it makes me a little sad to see so many people so against people trying to come unto Christ. But I suppose that just means that they are fulfilling prophesy so I can't complain.

We've met some amazing people here though. This morning alone we got to meet two gentlemen from California one who has been a member for all his life, and one who is preparing to enter the temple himself in a couple of months. The convert had the most amazing testimony I've ever heard... He's such a good man and going to conference was his dream come true... and then he got to see what the Temple looks like inside. We've also met members from Guatemala and Tahiti. They had brought their families and were enjoying everything, just drinking in the spirit of the place. There are a lot of people from Ocala here, that surprised me. All of the guests (and many of the members) these last few days have been from Ocala. Interesting.

We also met a fun lady from Florida who was Jewish and was an interior designer. She loved taking photos and kept on trying to teach us how to take better photos by framing the subjects just right. We told her that we read the Book of Mormon to help us frame the shots of our lives, to give us perspective. She then wanted to learn more about this book of Mormon and how she could get one. Sadly she didn't want to meet with the missionaries, but she wanted to tell them about her experience on Temple Square the next time they knocked on her door... so that was a decent end. I always love it when we get people to want to read that copy of the Book of Mormon gaining dust on the Shelf. (or when members say they don't have anyone to refer because all their friends are already meeting with the missionaries.)

Wish me luck as I go on the next two days... we are going to be busy from 8AM-9PM, and we're going to the Saturday afternoon session of Conference so look for me in the front section :) Not much else to report, but I'm sure more will come later as time goes by.

Love you

Sister Pielstick