Hello family!!

This week has been really great. 

We had a good follow up visit with Maria after her baptism on Tuesday. She said that as she was walking into the font on Sunday, she realized that she had had a dreamed her baptism before! And she knew that it was what God wanted her to do. She said after her baptism, she felt like she was in the clouds! She asked us if/ how she could do the baptisms for her grandparents because she feels like they really need it and should have the blessings. I'm so happy for her. We started talking about temples, and then somehow the prophet came up. She was so excited talking about how the prophet came to her baptism. 

....yup, she was convinced that President Monson was at her baptism!! I WISH he had been at her baptism!! Ha, it was really funny, we tried to explain how he's the leader of the church for the whole world, and showed her his picture, and still, she was convinced. Unless she saw something that we didn't, which, who knows. Anyways, that was funny, I think she was referring to one of the councellors in the mission presidency that came for the baptism. 

Well, hopefully we helped her understand that a little bit better. Anyways, then comes this Sunday, the day of her confirmation, and get a call from her ride that morning to tell us that she can't pick Maria up that day. Ok, well we called someone else and we were all set. Church starts, no Maria. Maria's ride walks in...still...no Maria. What?! For some reason, I guess she couldn't come to church because her kids came and so she couldn't leave...

so that was a bummer, but we went over after to talk to her and she had been at least reading her book of mormon, so that was really good. We got to talk to her a little bit more about the importance of confirmations and what they are, and church. she's really good, we're excited for her confirmation next week. 

I've been really impressed lately with the importance of making promised with Heavenly Father. Not sure if I shared this with you last time, but there's something about promises that really does strengthen your relationship with  Him, especially if you truly understand and do everything in your power to keep that promise. Our testimonies are strengthened, our relationship with Christ deepens and the divine help is poured out more than we usually deserve. I'm so grateful for that, and for prayer, the opportunity to kneel and communicate with Him about those promises. He really does listen. Prayer makes it all so much more real. I love the Gospel. 

Have a wonderful week!

Love you all, 

Hermana LaPierre

Maria

June 10, 2013

Hello Family!!

.
This week was AMAZING! Maria got baptized yesterday!!! It was incredible.
 The Spirit was so strong. I am so grateful for the Gospel that brings so much more light into peoples lives. I am amazed by her change. At the beginning of the transfer, we were about to drop her because she hadn't been keeping commitments, we had an idea to start teaching her at the church and getting members involved more. The difference was amazing. She started keeping commitments, and coming to church more and really understanding what we were teaching her. She bears her testimony to anyone that will listen. After her baptism she came over to me in tears so filled with the Spirit and so happy, she was saying how grateful she is and how excited she is and how much she will always remember us and her baptism and everything. I love the Gospel.I love the Spirit. It was a good day.
 One of our last lessons with her she was telling us that her 10 year old daughter was baptized like 3 years ago. WHAAAT?! how does that not come up earlier?!? well, actually, it ended up not being true. at least not yet, we're on it.

We had a meeting with President Becerra and about 6 other companionships about planning on Friday. It was really good. Something that stood out to me most is the importance of praying for inspiration on the goals we make. It makes me alot more determined. 

This past week, I've felt really confused spiritually because I felt like a couple weeks before, I was closer to the Lord than I ever had been and then this past week, I felt like all of the sudden, I didn't feel the Spirit as strong as before. I prayed a lot to figure out what I was missing or what was going on and I felt like Heavenly Father was just trying to push me a little more. It's super interesting to me to see how the Lord pushes and tries us to get us to our upmost potential. He knows who we can become much better than we do and so He provides opportunities for us to learn. We, as always, have to make the decision to act. Heavenly Father works so simply and so effectively.

This week is great! love you!
Hermana LaPierre

Querida Familia, 

I am so happy. This week has been great. We're preparing for our first baptism here this following Sunday, Maria. (That's my present to you Jamie!) She's so ready and is very excited to do this. She's been coming to church every week this past month and is doing great- she participates just like a member of the ward already! We're working with her this week to make sure she has the support she needs from us, but mostly from the members. It's amazing how much quicker she progressed once members became a more central role in the teaching process.

We have another investigator, Rafael. He is AWESOME!! He's this 60-something year old man and has a pretty serious alcohol addiction. He hates it, he feels alot of sorrow about it and he wants more than anything to get rid of it. He is so funny though because he always talks about how he's going to get baptized "para cumplir todo justicia"- he always says that after we gave him a tour of the chapel and talked about Christ's baptism. He can't really say our names very well, especially my companion Hna. Crawley. Bless his heart, he just always sounds like he has a speech impediment whenever he says her name. We like to tease her for that. He loooooves us. Everyone that walks in and out of his house while we're there, he tells them to come learn with us, and he tells them how we're going to baptize him and how he's going to "cumplir todo justicia" when he gets baptized. Words do not do justice to explain this man. He is so awesome. It'll be interesting to note the difference in his energy after he's sober. It's debatable how much is the alcohol and how much is actually him. He has a baptismal date for the end of the month. He knows that he needs Heavenly Father to help him overcome alcoholism, and he is clasping on for dear life. It's a challenge for him of course, because it is such a serious addiction (5 or 6 cervezas cada dia, por lo menos), but we're working with him. He's been reading and keeps his commitments, which is great. He always remembers when our appointments are, and he lists them off for us before we go. We're working on getting powerful member presents to come with us for support. Every time we talk to him he tells us how much he wants to get baptized! We're praying hard for him and Maria!

I've been growing and learning so much this week. Everyday is different, I have a new perspective on my mission, on the Gospel, myself, etc. We just had zone conference this past week. It was really good. President talked alot about repentance. He has a very suave way of calling us to repentance. It was good, I made a lot of goals and things I can do to become better and more effective. As a mission, we're doing a purification fast, where you fast for 40 days from habits that "poke at your spirit". The first day we fast and you personally and prayerfully make a list of 10 things that keep you from having the spirit (thoughts, actions, activities, obedience, etc.) and then you fast from those things for 40 days. I'm excited to do it. It's intense, but really good and worth it. It should be a really incredible experience.  President is really really excited for the broadcast that they are doing from the new mission president conference coming up. Apparently President Monson and others are broadcasting one of your meetings church wide. It's called "The Work of Salvation" on the 23rd of june. We're getting together that day as a mission, all of us are fasting and then we're going to watch the broadcast all together. I'm really excited. (Mom and dad, pick good seats so I can see you!) President and Sister Becerra are super excited for you two. They keep asking me how you're doing and what you're doing right now and how you're feeling. 

 

This past month and especially this past week, I feel like I've come to know Heavenly Father better than I have my entire life. The Gospel gets realer and realer every day. 

love and miss you, 

Hermana LaPierre

May 28

Hello family,

 

This week has been super crazy. There's alot going on here in Pomona. Most Sundays are kind of crazy just because you're trying to get investigators at church, and then you try to set up a million things while you're at church since all of the members are there. Well, this Sunday was probably the craziest I've had so far. We have an investigator, named Maria who has a baptismal date in a couple weeks, so it was super important that she was at church this week. Well, we called her Saturday night to confirm her ride and she said everything was ok but turns out her ride was out of town. Well, long story short, about 5 minutes before sacrament meeting starts we're still calling to find her a ride to get her to church. (I swear people see our number and just ignore the call!) Finally, we found one for her! While we're waiting for her to get there, we're also waiting for another investigator who told us he would be bringing 3 of our other investigators that live close by. 15 minutes into sacrament meeting and they still aren't there. they live closeby so we decided to drive over and see what happened. we get to his gate and see this pug hanging out by the door. pugs are supposedly pretty nice, so I open the gate and start walking up the door. Well....pugs are NOT nice! about half way up the door that dog came charging at me and was literally about to bite me! we turn around and Hermana Quezada is yelling at Hermana Crawley to open the gate. Hermana Crawley can't open the gate. and the dog is literally lunging at us trying to bite us. Finally the gate opens and we shut the door in his face. I will not own a dog after my mission. We stopped by our investigators that live next door and they have visitors so they can't come to church.

 

We get back to church about 30 minutes after sacrament meeting started and there is Maria sitting in the pew with the members! I was so happy. Anyways, the rest of church was crazy too, we taught primary, which was fun but looots of energy, and then everyone wanted to talk to us and set things up. AH!! It was really great. I was especially super happy to see Maria there. We've been working on getting her there for a long time. She loves it there and so do her kids. Her daughter was singing along in primary more than half the kids there! She totally acts like she's already a member. It's so awesome. I'm excited for her baptism.

 

It's been a great week, we've been finding lots of people and seen lots of miracles. It's been amazing. I love it.

 

Have a wonderful week! sorry this letter is a little scattered.

 

Love, Laree

Hermana LaPierre

 

Missionary Writings

HOLA familia!!

Como estan? This week has been great! My new companions are awesome, they have tons of life and energy and they want to be here!! Which I love, we're going to be doing tons of work here this month. We're also going to have a baptism this month. Just wait.

So....my new companions. Hermana Quezada is from Springville UT. She's super cute, half Mexican....I'm jealous. Doesn't speak spanish though, but she's really driven to learn it, so that's been really good. She's got a ton of energy, which is really good. Hermana Crawley is so cute. She's probably the sweetest girl I've ever met. She's too nice. She's waiting for her visa to go to Buenos Aires Norte! She's so full of faith and tons of love, so she's awesome. She had to go home after the MTC for a medical issue and so while she was home, somehow she found my mission blog. It was kind of weird to have her know so much about my mission. She was asking me about my investigators by name and then would ask me about funny experiences she had read about. She's so sweet.

Training 2 hermanas at the same time has been a different experience. It's fun though. They're pretty easy to train so far, so I can't really complain. It's just a different way of doing things and working with them, but I'm learning as I go and the Spirit is helping me out. I'm pretty confident that things will be really good this month.

We had dinner with a member this week and when we got there, she told us she had a surprise for us. I was so convinced that it was that she was dating someone in the ward or that she was engaged or something like that. the whole time I was totally expecting something like that. After dinner, she went and grabbed something.You could tell she was so excited to show us. She came back and handed us her temple recommend! You could tell she was so proud. She was so excited. As she showed us she got so emotional and her eyes were so full of tears and all she could say was "I'm so happy". I will never forget her face, how excited she was, smiling and crying, after having been through so so much for so long to finally have a temple recommend. That was such a powerful experience for me to see how much it meant to her to have a recommend. It made me realize how much it really means, how important it really is. She said she just felt so different already and she hadn't even gone through yet! THIS is why I am here!! I'm here to help people get there! I love her so much. I will never not be worthy to be there. After what it takes so many people to get there, seeing how much they treasure it, how can you not do everything you can to make sure you always have a recommend? I will never forget that.

This week has been great. I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!!!

I love you all. Hope everything is good.

love,

Hermana LaPierre

May 12 Letter

Well...I hope you're all doing well since we last talked yesterday. It was a pleasure to see all of you...very sorry none of you got to see me for very long. (why didn't anyone tell me my video was off earlier?!) Anyways, things are going well.

I don't remember if I told you yesterday, but I dropped off my companion this morning. She'll be going to Pasadena in English work. And.... I'm going to train! (I guess there's really not much of a surprise about that anymore). But, this time, I'm training 2 sisters. One that's here for good and another that's a visa waiter. They come tomorrow. I'm excited. It should mix things up as far as training goes. So that'll be interesting.

There's been a completely new standard for the work now. President just got back from a mission president conference and was talking to Elder Perry who told him that we need to be baptizing at least once a month. So that's what we're going to do. It's going to stretch me, but it's going to happen. That's the standard now for everyone in the mission, doesn't matter what culture we work with. I'm excited. It'll make us change how we work, and work harder for the Spirit. Bring it on!

I love you all. It was so good to see you!!

Love,

Hermana LaPierre

May 6 Letter

Hello Family!!

How are you all doing? 

 

We still aren't sure about skyping/ calling this Sunday. I'm not sure who in the ward has a skype for us to use, so we'll have to find someone first. I may just be calling. Either way, I'll probably call or have my companion call first so you'll know. 

Things are going great this week. We contacted a homeless man that was a referral. He's super interesting. From New York. He has a million stories. He was married to an LDS woman once so he's fairly familiar with the Church. 

We also had a really awesome day yesterday! We've been working with this family since we got to Pomona and after 2 weeks, things started to feel weird with them and they started missing appointments and it was just weird, We haven't had a full sit down lesson with them for a long time. Well, they (the woman and her boyfriend's daughters) came yesterday to church!!! It was so great! We got to talk to her during the second hour (we grabbed her before she went to sunday school and talked to her in the empty chapel). Her son is a member and just got sealed to his wife in LA on Saturday. She got to go and wait in the visitors center while they got sealed and it sounds like it was amazing for her! We got to talk to her about how someday after she gets baptized, she'll be able to go in there. She's so excited. She really wants to get baptized. I'm so excited for her and so glad things are back on track with her. 

Something I've learned about faith this week is how faith is really trusting in who Heavenly Father is. We learn about His attributes by reading the scriptures and reading about how He works with His children. When we learn who He is then we can trust that He will help us. He is constant, He does the same yesterday today and forever. If that's true, then we know that He will give us answers to our prayers. He's done that countless times in the scriptures and in the past, so why can't He do it today?!  He's performed hundreds of miracles, so why not now? He loves each of us like we were His only child. He wants the very best for us. If we really believe and trust that, how can we doubt that He'll answer our pleas and perform miracles today? He wants us to succeed. He wants to see us back. We just have to show Him that we trust that, by doing our part by moving forward with complete confidence and not looking back.

I can't wait for the day when I get to see Him again. I want to do everything I can here. I want to be able to tell Him that I did everything I could. I can't wait to kneel before Him and tell Him that I tried as hard as I could. I hope that when that day comes, He'll stand with His arms out and say "Thank-you for trying". 

I know that my Redeemer lives. He lives! 

I love you, 

Hermana LaPierre

pictures

.once again, i almost forgot the pictures for like hte 3rd week in a row. 

here they are!!

one from our temple trip a couple weeks ago (me and my companion sister ward)
one with my trio in rimgrove at Juan Martinez's baptism last week...best day of my life!
one with me and the 2 juans in rimgrove...the one that got baptized my second week there and the one that just got baptized
one from mormon helping hands!!

love you

Hola Familia

hola,

how are y'all doing? this week has been good. It feels like last monday was forever ago, but it's been great.

On Saturday we did Mormon Helping Hands with the ward. We went to a park close by to the church and cleaned it. It was alot of fun. I'm always impressed by how many cigarrette butts you can find on the ground outside. I wish I had a penny for every one I picked up. It was a good time though. The members were so funny.

We had a lesson with one of our investigators this week and we were trying to get a member to come with us. We were calling everyone we could think of and had nothing. So, we went to the lesson to teach just us. Well, we stopped by to visit a less active that lives right next door before because we got there a little early. She ended up coming with us to the lesson and it was awesome!! This woman is amazing. We've visited her a few times these past 2 weeks and she is so interesting. She's been a member her whole life but has gone inactive because of work (and some other issues), but it was amazing to watch her in our lesson. We taught about the book of mormon and what it means to recieve an answer that it's true. She would bear testimony and would say exactly what Maria (our investigator) needed to hear. It was amazing. You could tell they both were really taking into consideration what they were feeling. It really helped Maria because she says she accepts the Book of Mormon and believes it's true, but mostly just because it's a book about God. She hasn't really prayed and ever really gotten an answer.  She's not really committed either so we were hoping that talking about that would help her commit a little more. It was so powerful.

Latinos are so funny, they react 2 different ways to questions we ask them. Either they will just accept everything you say and say "oh si todo esta bien, todo habla de Dios" and then when you try to ask them something to go a little deeper, they'll just say "no se" OR you'll ask them one quesiton and the flood gates will open and you can't get them to stop talking. It's really funny to watch the 2 extremes, actually, it's kind of frustrating, but in a good way because it forces me to think more about how to ask better questions and teach better. Somewhere there has got to be a happy middle right?
I am so glad to be in Spanish work though. So grateful. Latinos are so fun to work with. I have never been told off by a Latino. They may have commitment issues but they will never chew you out for being a missionary. If you have Christ on your name tag then they'll always be nice to you. We've had a couple experiences talking to white people (is there a non racist way to differentiate that?) where they tell us that we're cults or that we're being deceived or they just straight up yell at us. I guess it's good because then you know right off the bat that they're not interested. It's funny how different Spanish work is than English work.

On Wednesday, we had a good day. Literally at every house we went to, they wanted to feed us and so we ate a TON of food! By our last appointment, I was sooo sick. All of the food was really good though. At this one member's house, she made a fruit salad kind of (Latino fruit salads are kind of different), bit it's really good, you eat it with chili and lemon. That was our first house and I ate alot there not knowing what was to come. At another house, we had this Nicaraguan drink that's really interesting. At first I thought it was coffee, so I was a little nervous. Turns out though that it's this kind of drink made from burning maiz and then adding sugar and water. Very interesting and good at the same time.

It's been a good week. Hope you're all doing well...Staying "Boston Strong"... :) 

Love you lots, thanks for everything.

miss and love you,

Hermana Laree LaPierre

Hello April 22, 2013

                                                                                                                                               .

Hello fam,

How is Boston? I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well...hopefully still the case. I still can't believe that happened. So sad. They (and you) are in my prayers.

This week was great. We were in Arcadia on Wednesday for a sisters meeting, it was really good. They want us to step it up, so we're going to. Our mission for the sisters is pretty crazy, pretty much every spanish sister is training right now, and if they aren't they will be in a couple weeks. They've started to open areas and move people around outside of transfer cycles because sisters are coming in outside of the normal cycle. Out of the 7 months I've been in the field I've had 1 week where I haven't been training or been trained. Just with the way the mission worked out and the spacing of the hermanas that came in, I'm now one of the 3 oldest spanish sisters, which is funny because I still feel like I'm a newby. Anyways, it's fun. There's alot that's been required of us, but it's good because it makes us learn faster. I got to talk to my companion from the MTC. She's so sweet, it was really fun to talk to get to talk to her. She's serving in an area close to my first area in Tujunga.

This week, we were walking down the street from an appointment, and ended up stopping to talk to a couple Latino men sitting outside (drinking beer...ALWAYS). One of them, Hector, ended up being a less active from the DR who just moved to LA 3 months ago from Spain. He's awesome, we set up an appointment to meet with him and when we went over there it got even better. We met a woman that he lives with (still not sure if they're "together", I don't think so) and she said that she had been wanting to go to a Mormon church for a long time. She was even looking up online where the chapels were close by. She talked to Hector about it and he told her that we would be coming over later that week. Her name is Lucy, she's really sweet and is really open to everything.

We've been trying to meet with a family of investigators all week and they never were home. But! 2 of them came to church yesterday. It was crazy, they're ride wouldn't pick up so they called us to tell us they couldn't find a ride. Sacrament meeting had just barely started when they called us. One of the members pulled up right then and we asked her if she wouldn't mind picking them up. she said yes, so we called Josefina back and told her we'd be there to pick her and her hija (aka her boyfriend's hija) up. We found out later that Yadira (the hija, she's like 14) told her that they needed to pray to find a ride. Right after they finished praying, we called them back to tell them that we were on our way!

This area has so much going for it. The members are also amazing. We talked to this one woman, she's a recent convert, like a year or 2 ago. She told us her conversion story and it's so cool. She said that she had seem the missionaries walking down the street and always wanted to talk to them, but she thought they only spoke english. So, she started learning english just so she could talk to them. When we finally did, she realized that they also spoke spanish! she was so surprised! I think she said she was baptized like 2 or 3 weeks later. She's gold- she has made it her goal and purpose in life to make sure that everyone in her family has the gospel. And everyone else she knows! While we're talking to her if she see's someone she knows, she'll chase them down and have them come and talk to us. The other day we were teaching a man that lives in the same trailer park as her and she came over, grabbed a chair and just started bearing testimony of what we were teaching. Amazing. We also went to a wedding reception on Saturday of a couple who had just gotten sealed in the temple that morning. They wanted us us to be there so that we could introduce ourselves to their friends. We were able to pick up a potential investigator and a really good referral for the elders I served with in my last area in Rimgrove.

I also got to go back to Rimgrove yesterday for Juan's baptism! He asked me to speak. It was one of the best days of my life. He has changed so so much. After his baptism, he told me that he had called a family meeting kind of to talk to his family about his baptism and to bear his testimony to them. His whole life has changed from where it was 2 months ago. He's a totally different person. He told me that he's stopped working so much because he realizes now how there is so much more to life than just working. He wants a family so badly (his favorite general conference talk was the one about the principles of having a good marriage). I am amazed! I would have been shocked to hear him say those words 2 months ago. He's on fire!

I was able to see one of my other investigators there as well who is also doing really well! Hopefully, we'll be able to go back next week for his baptism as well. I'm so excited!

I love you all and hope all is going well.

Love and miss you,

Hermana LaPierre

:0

Hello family,

 

Sorry, this letter is going to be super short. I spent most of my time writing a letter to my mission president about some concerns I have (ps- I'm fine).

 

Anyways, this week has been good. Today we got to go to the temple. We didn't have a ride there until like 9:45 last night and the poor elders had to take the bus the whole way! It was incredible though. I have missed that place so much. I didn't realize how much until I was there. We've been teaching and finding lots of people this week. It's been incredible everything that's happening in the area. I've been learning alot. I got a call from my old companion the other night asking if I could speak at my investigator's baptism! I couldn't sleep that night I was so excited!

 

The Gospel is real. Never let anything distract you from that. That's something I've learned this week. There's nothing more important than serving the Lord and being an actively righteous disciple. Nothing. If we want the very best out of life and most happiness we can have, we'll put Him first. Always.

 

I love it. and I love you all.

 

Have a great week!

 

Hermana LaPierre

Hello dear family,

Today has been very exciting. We spent the majority of our day driving to different libraries to try to use a computer for e-mailing. we didn't find one so we ended up driving to the mission office to use the computers there. plus, my companion, Hna. Ward, was asked to come to assemble on of the bikes here- she's a bike mechanic! so we finally found a computer!

This week has been very exciting. We're just barely starting to get our minds around the area and the work here in Pomona. It's a great area with tons of potential. On Tuesday we headed to the chapel to visit the bishop and he is incredible! This ward is super organized (comparatively speaking) and were really helpful. The zone leaders have also been really helpful. They took us around on Wednesday to a bunch of people's houses that we can start working with- less actives, investigators, etc. unfortunately, none of them were actually home, but we have a good list of addresses and people to start with. The first few days were not terribly efficient, but we're getting better and busier. 

We started teaching this woman and her boyfriend's teenage daughters. She really wants to get baptized but she can't because she can't marry her boyfriend because he's married to a woman who lives in Mexico (a very common problem among Latinos). We're working on her. Her boyfriend has no interest in the church, but she really likes it. Her son is a member and she see's how much it's changed his life. 

Hermana Ward is my new companion- another 19 year old! She's a Utahn and is really nice. She's a bike mechanic and a bike racer. She's a good missionary. I'm excited to work with her. She teaches with the Spirit and alot of emotion and she feels the Spirit really strongly when she teaches, which is great, especially when I'm a little less emotional in general. It really moves them. 

General Conference was amazing! So much to learn about missionary work and what I can do to improve myself as a missionary. I love it. We went to the stake center to watch conference and I got to see my investigator Juan from Rimgrove!! He is amazing! In between sessions he was calling a friend to tell them to come to conference. The change in him since we first met him is incredible. He's becoming a very different man. He truly is converting to the Gospel and to our Savior. He is teaching himself things that we haven't even taught him! He was talking about tithing and how great it is and I know the other hermanas have not taught him that since I left! 

So....I also had the unfortunate event of experiencing my biggest fear on the mission. Latino woman love to give us hugs and kisses. I was hugging a woman in the ward the other day and went to kiss her cheek and almost kissed her lips!!!!! AWKWARD!! that's an interesting welcome to the ward.... ugh, i still squirm thinking about it. that's been my fear since day 1 on the mission. anyways, after several sessions of therapy, i'm doing ok :)

how are all of you doing? Love you!!

love and miss you, 

Hermana Laree LaPierre

Hola familia,

This week was really good. We had exchanges on Tuesday, which actually went really well. It was fun. We went to teach a new investigator of ours-this70something year old man and his caretaker came and sat in on our lesson. Her husband is a pastor at her church. Needless to say, it was an interesting discussion on the Restoration. We'll see what happens this week :)

On Saturday, our recent convert wanted to take us to a fresas y crema cart (strawberries and cream) so met him at his house. When we got there, he and his nephews were eating raw oysters. It's kind of gross- they just open up the shell and put some lemon/ lime juice on it, salt and chili and then you just eat it out of the shell. Anyways, long story short, I tried some and it was definitely kind of weird, but not as bad as I had expected. I ate two and I my stomach is still doing ok, so I think we're good. He was telling us that their is a kind of shellfish they eat in Mexico that when you open it, it's red with black juice and it's still alive/ moving around. You just put chili on it and then eat it...squirming and everything. Maybe next time. I wanted to take a picture of it, but I didn't bring my camera so hopefully I can take a picture next time.

Some of the elders in our ward had a baptism yesterday and our investigator Juan came with us!! He is the one that took forever to pray a couple weeks ago. Actually, it was really interesting because last week, alot of things changed with him. We met with him that Sunday after church and he told us that he had read the entire chapter we left with him and he'd watched the Restoration 3 or 4 times before we came! He really really likes coming to church and has begun to make some really good friendships with some of the men in the ward. Anyways, he'd told us in the past that he could only meet with us on the weekends, but then that Sunday, he said that he actually has a couple hours in between his jobs where he is home during the week. He told us to come whatever day we want to. He's trying to overcome drug and alcohol addictions right now to prepare for his baptism, and he's doing really well. There's several men in the ward that are also helping him and strengthening him through that. It's amazing to see how different he is from when we first met him. We're so excited for April 21st!

We had a mission conference on Thursday that was really great. They talked a lot about asking questions (quoted Clayton Christensen's book several times), faith, sacrificing our heart, might, mind and strength to the work and the Lord, and then the character of Christ. It was in alot of ways what I needed to hear right now and helped answer some of the things I've been thinking about lately. It was kind of funny. President took some time to teach us how to talk to people. Kind of funny/ pathetic that our generation has to be taught how to socialize with people, but asi es. I've been surprised on my mission to realize how much of missionary work really does have to do with your ability to communicate and build relationships with people. Especially since most people don't communicate outside of anything technological/ texting/ video games/ etc...

Love and miss you all,

Hna. LaPierre