Transfer 5: Week 2: South 2

Rock on everyone.

I say that because even though there is virtually no one on Temple Square (we get excited if we talk to 3 people in a day) we are having so much fun calling and talking to people over the phones. One of our new investigators is a hard core rocker (or was when he was younger) and is having a blast learning more things about God. He still doesn't believe us that God forgives every one of everything, but hopefully as he reads the Book of Mormon and meets with the missionaries in person he'll understand that. There are also some fun people who are not always answering the phone, but are great. We have a film editor from California and a physical trainer from Arizona who are excited to learn more. As Sister Bruno says, ”Heavenly Father is Amazing”.

We're also having fun as I learn more and more about the physics of the sound equipment (and FYI running into the previous sound equipment hurts when you're not expecting it.) We are trying to let everyone know about going to see the sisters and getting tours after the Music and the Spoken Word. The logistics are pretty fun to explore and figuring out who to talk to to get things done is pretty interesting as well. I find that being in meetings makes me feel more at home than anything else in missionary work. Funny how being a missionary can change meetings from a dreaded thing to something that is as at home for you as going to church.

Sister Farmer and I are having fun learning and growing together. Being a senior companion is a lot more work than I thought it was... I need to be more responsible and keep better track of the apartment keys. (Whoops) But it is good to have this experience, even if I am learning by my mistakes. Hopefully I will get things figured out by the end of the transfer.

Best regards,

Sister Pielstick

Transfer 5: Week 1: South 2

Transfer 5: Week 1: South 2

Notice anything different?

I stayed in the same zone for the first time in my mission! It is rather exciting, because everything else changed-new companion, new place to live, new assignments, everything else. But for once something did not change. Sister M Farmer from Oregon is my new companion and she is an artist. We were in the Beehive house together my second transfer and we had lots of fun and joked about being companions. I guess God listened and trusted us enough to give us a try after we had a little more experience and training. We're both excited to be working together (First time I've known what my companion looks like before transfer conference).

We're teaching some amazing people, and we've found a bunch of awesome people as well. One person we called and taught the first lesson to on Sunday hung up on us because she wanted to get to church on time. (I am refraining from singing the song right now) She is so excited to learn more about why her ex-husband's family is so tight knit and caring for each other. Heaven is watching over these people and God is making sure that they have the opportunity to have His guidance in their lives. Heavenly Father is amazing that way.

Temple Square may be a little less than busy, but now I get to help coordinate the language announcing after music and the spoken word. We are really excited to help the people who come to listen learn more in their own language. I get to help fulfill prophecy, isn't that exciting?

Nothing much more to report.

Have a wonderful day!

Sister Pielstick

Transfer 4: Week 6! : South 2

Hello!

This week has gone by lightening fast. So much to do and so little time in which to do it in... We have many people that we are teaching now, many from Brazil. Those lessons are interesting because they don't understand me and I do not understand them so we just feel the spirit and I say 'oy'. The other lessons are pretty fun, there is one person from California who was originally from Japan but loves everything about the church... unfortunately she works a lot and rarely picks up her phone for us. Such is the life for any missionary I suppose. We are also about to teach an amazing woman from Australia... fortunately she doesn't work in the afternoons otherwise we'd never get in contact with her.

I also got a random phone call from a lady who lives in Utah who wanted to know how to get in contact with the missionaries. After being taken aback, I got her in contact with them and she wants to go to church on Sunday! We are both very excited to see how she liked it. She wanted to see what it was like because she works at a care facility and saw how the old couples treated each other, even when they couldn't care for themselves they tried their hardest to care for each other. Such a sweet testimony to go off on, it proves that you can be a missionary at any stage of life.

We've also met a lot of amazing people on Temple Square. They may be few in number, but they are big at heart. Argentineans as so funny, we started taking them around temple square and explaining everything in English... and we thought they understood, but then at the last place we took them they asked Sister Bruno to explain everything we had just said, only in Spanish. She explained everything and then they got really excited and wanted missionaries. So miracles happen even when there is hardly anyone anywhere.

I also got to see Elder Bonaro teaching one of his investigators in the North Visitors Center... it was fun to watch them work. He's making his mother very proud I bet. We're working closely with the mission president of his mission... no idea why but he's been over visiting us for a while now, looking at the computers and everything. It sounds like fun though, because one of our investigators just got contacted in his mission and from what we understood he was golden.

Hopefully this finds everyone well!

Sister Pielstick

Transfer 4: Week 5: S2

This picture is from our presentation of 'The Little Mormon'

Hello!

This week was rather exciting as we finally got two of our investigators to meet with the missionaries. One is a southern gal from Texas who has been trying to win custody of her daughter now that she has cleaned herself up and moved into a more stable environment. It's amazing the change that Jesus Christ can bring to people's lives, just in the hope category. She was tearing up when she told us about how the missionaries told her about God having a plan for her on their first visit and was terrified that they'd never come back again because she had a family emergency and missed one appointment. She is a real sweet heart.

The Indiana chemical engineer met with the missionaries this week as well and reported that they are helping him on his quest to find God in his life... which is amazing. And his friend, who referred him to us, miraculously got in contact with us and we got to tell her that her best non-member friend is investigating the church in Indiana at university. J

I have also discovered how difficult it is to work around time zones with people in other countries. Just trying to contact our friends in India, Australia, and Zambia has been a hassle, but when we get to talk to them it will be worth it. You have to be very careful calling other countries because they don't appreciate being called at one or two in the morning... and Utah time really messes with everything. At least Australia and Zambia have 2 hour windows where we can call... it is a lot of fun to be able to do missionary work all around the world.

The square is surprisingly busy, with loads of people from conferences and random countries on holidays. We talked to two fun Frenchmen who came to ski and see the sights. One spoke English and one spoke only French so it was definitely an interesting experience, but I learned a few new French phrases to help teach people and they finally understand what the words God and prophet mean. We have also had a lot of Brazilians who want to

-a. learn more about this odd religion and

-b. want to get some snow skiing in on their summer holidays.

Sister Bruno Keeps on speaking Portuguese at least once a day to people from her country or RMs who just got back and are missing it incredibly.

The transfer is almost over, yikes! I am excited/apprehensive about what will happen next. Hopefully Sister Bruno will get her dream of going outbound to New York-Utica next transfer. I don't have any dreams, except staying alive and getting in contact with the people I've been trying to for over a month now, but that is irrelevant compared to switching companions and zones and such so, oh well.

Happy New Year!

Sister Pielstick

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