Elder Pier Dick

The guidance of the Spirit in the Work Hey y'all! Since being in Mount Vernon I've had a few experiences that have helped me realize how much Heavenly Father really cares about the little things. He really does love us, with all His heart and His only desire is that we do what we need to so we can get back to Him. And He's doing all He can to help us on the way. One instance where this was made evident to me again was  on Monday . We had spent most of the day talking to people and looking for those who were truly desirous to come to know and follow Christ, and it was getting late. We stay out until  9:30pm  if we are teaching someone, and if not we are asked to be home by  9pm . It's really close to that time and we were just leaving an apartment building and it's pitch black outside. Before we leave the awning of the building and get to the sidewalk, this car with dark windows pulls up and stops like they're ready to pick someone up, and then the most pecu

I believe in miracles.  We were having a spiritual conversation with 3 guys on the street when this lady interrupts us and scares away the 3 guys. But, not to be dismayed by the lost opportunity with those guys, we started talking with this lady and the conversation started being led by the Spirit.  Well, on comes another distraction. Drunk guy comes up and starts yelling at us to preach to him! Recognizing that he was completely incoherent I told him we had a baptismal service on October 21st, and invited him to be baptized that day. He screamed his praises and whatnot, and we thought it was funny because we weren't going to pursue a drunk guy saying yes to being baptized.  But the lady was still there listening. She immediately spoke up and said "I want to be baptized. Can I come to the service on the 21st? I want to learn about what you talked to me about. I need direction."  We were so excited to help her come unto Christ. The Lord works in mysterious ways. So

Yesterday I heard an analogy I really liked.  You know those old style walls that were made of just rocks? Like, no filler to hold them together... Just rocks that fit together. Let's say that wall is your testimony you're trying to build. All of a sudden someone hands you a rock, and it's really oddly shaped, and it doesn't fit at all in the part of the wall you're building. It just doesn't fit, it's weird shaped. So what do you do? Just put it on your wall anyways and try to build around it and risk your entire wall being unstable and imperfect and risk it crumbling? No. You just put it to the side, and keep building your wall until you find where it fits. And in the gospel of Jesus christ, everything always fits perfectly!  People have a terrible habit of taking one principle, one rock out of the wall, and expanding it greatly and then trying to shove it back in and cry and complain that it doesn't fit, so they leave or go less active. Keeping ev

As missionaries, we share a unique message. We look (or try to) for every opportunity to talk to people about it. But there's a reason we look for people to talk to!  Here's why: On Sunday  my companion and I were heading to church. Because of how far away it is, we have to take a bus to get there. We had been held up earlier (he just took kind of long to get ready this day) so we got out to the bus stop later than usual. We missed the  10:35  bus we always catch, so we caught the next one. When we got on, there was this 25 year old girl kind of near the back, and she had Happy Birthday balloons and flowers! I sat down right by her and asked, "so it's your birthday today huh?!" and she told me, "No, actually it's my grandpa's. I'm heading to his grave to put these down, and say hi to my dad too." Usually, when things like that happen and someone tells me someone died, I automatically go into consoling mode. Tell them I'm sorry for them

Today started with district meeting. Elder Lindberg and I were asked to role-play with the Zone leaders the topic “Use the Book of Mormon to respond to objections” Objections like, “I don't believe in the word of wisdom.”  As we started the role-play, it was completely different than expected. The investigator we were teaching, his “objection” was completely vague. He just talked about how hard his life was, and work and his family and how he was tired and he had problems with family and no time and blah blah blah. Well….that was honestly the most accurate potrayal of how people treat us and our how our lessons go so it was really special for us to be in that circumstance, in that role play, to receive that special inspiration on how to handle those objections.  I learned a lot about the power of teaching to someone’s needs. Sometimes that’s just helping them find the desire to open the Book of Mormon every night. They need help realizing what they need help with in their life.

Today was my first P-day in the Bronx! Started out by taking a bus ride to Aldi, a super cheap grocery store (because everything is outrageous here) and carrying all of my stuff back to the apartment. Then, we went into Manhattan for the day. We went to the Museum of Natural History, which was kinda cool, and went by the temple in Manhattan, and that was about it. Then we headed back and ended the night trying to find some people. Elder Lindberg is very new to the mission and it kind of feels like training all over again. He’s from small town Utah. For example, as we are here in the Bronx, he (after much pressure from his companion) decided he was going to try and talk to someone on the street. Here was his phrase, “Excuse me, sir, could I please ask you a question? Have you thought about Jesus Christ today?”........May not sound that bad. But remember BRONX. It was a huge black guy. What was the result? Well, he didn’t pass out the card haha. 

First day down in Olmstead! The Bronx! Haha it is absolutely hilarious here. The people are so funny, and they're from EVERYWHERE. Angola, Pakistan, South America…..literally everywhere. It’s super cool. My companion is Elder Linburg from Nibly Utah. He’s only been out for 3 months! He even seems to be super new to this whole missionary thing. Scared to talk to people, not really sure of himself...but that’s okay. I plan on teaching him that missionary work is largely about making friends and teaching people because you love them. I’m really excited to spend some more time in the Bronx. It’s gonna be a blast. Tomorrow we are going into Manhattan to the Natural History Museum, and all around South Manhattan. I’ve never been in the city, and it’s gonna be so exciting. I’ll take plenty of pictures.

Today I was on a split with Elder Nielson! I learned a lot from him today and it was really great. I learned about street contacting and the how-to's of that. I learned a lot about being bold and more confident. I've made goals now to improve my studies. As well as my memory. I feel that if I can have spiritual experiences every morning during personal and companionship study, I will be so much more spiritually prepared to take on the day and receive promptings throughout. And a better memory just because it would help.

Finished up my split with Elder Myers this morning. We visited this guy during companion study, and man he is cool. But he also has some serious attachment problems and abandonment problems too. We visited Regina, and I had a couple really strong spiritual prompting during our lesson (which was the April 1st presidency message about faith).  She was saying some really rash things like how she doesn’t believe in miracles anymore and this and that. I felt prompted to promise her that if she read the plan of salvation pamphlet, she would understand God’s plan for her. She seemed really taken aback by that and promised she would read because she really doesn’t understand what her plan is. It was cool. We also visited another sister  today. She is a 26 year old member whose husband cheated on her when she was 8 weeks pregnant. She has 2 kids, divorced once, and in the process of getting divorced again. At 26. How difficult. This was my first time actually having a conversation with her

Pier has been permanently reassigned to the New York, New York North Mission. He will serve there until August 23, 2018. He will continue to serve speaking Portuguese, Spanish, and English.

Saturday, April 1st 2017 General Conference!!! “It’s good to have questions, better to write them down, best to write them down and ponder and study them.” I came to conference with 5 questions. I’m definitely receiving answers!  It’s so cool. I love conference. I also thought before that taking notes was a distraction...i think I just didn’t know how to take notes. Because wow it definitely makes the spirit way better. I’ve figured it out!.....for now. Also, after that talk in Priesthood session about being called to serve, and assigned to labor…..everyone came up to me and was like, “Elder Dick! Did you hear that talk that was just for you?!” Oh, thanks guys. Really? Meant for me? Super hope y’all at least TRIED to apply it to yourself!  It had way more implications than just me! Than just missionaries!  It was good though.   I absolutely LOVED Brother Clayton’s talk in the Morning Session. He literally just taught the missionary lesson of the Plan of Salvation, but

Tuesday, April 11th, 2017 Today we had district meeting and afterwards I went on a split with Elder Brown in the Danbury English area! It was fun. I learned a lot from him and he taught me a lot. We taught a Hispanic couple who “spoke” english. They switched to spanish in the lesson because they were struggling with English (without knowing I would understand) and so I got to practice a lot of spanish with them! I surprised myself with how much I could speak. It was still half portuguese, but I feel if i spent a transfer or 2 in a Spanish area, I'd be pretty well off.

Wednesday, April 12th 2017 Today we ended the split with Elder Brown. It was a great split. I really enjoyed it.  When I got back with Elder Pires, we went to take care of a recall for something wrong with our Nissan Altima. So we drove 20 minutes to the Nissan Dealership, and while they were taking care of the car we walked down the highway to Subway to eat. When we got back, the dealership told us that they couldn’t fix everything because Tiwi was plugged in!  So we got to unplug her :) it was a very freeing feeling.  After it got all sorted out we headed back to Danbury. We went to fix Gisele’s curtain rod….And Elder Pires spent about 3 hours trying and trying. He kept correcting me on how I was trying to do it, so after about 10 minutes, I just handed it over to him and let him go at it. 3 hours later, it is still pretty rough. I’m still trying to figure out how to help people realize that they’re not always right.

Elder Rocha and I went looking for this man, Jose Dos Santos Filho, because he appeared in our area book as a less-active member who hadn’t been to church or taught in 2 years. So we decided we were going to go find him. We arrive at the last-known address and knock on the door. This husband and wife open the door, and before I could finish saying that we were looking for Jose the husband let us know, “we aren’t interested! Please, just go away,”....the wife started shouting, “You just wait there one minute, i’ll be right back!!”  In my missionary optimist mind, I was convinced she was going to get Jose! …..and then we heard the garage door open…….out comes the wife with a box in her arms. My next thought: Oh, Jose must have lived here before and a package came for him and she wants us to give it to him when we find him. This poor woman, she starts screaming at us again, saying, “You want to talk to Jose?! WELL HERE HE IS! COME TALK TO HIM! Say what it is you want to say because he’s

Bastante neve! We woke up and already had more than a foot of snow. Did morning exercises, got ready, and when we started planning we looked at the forecast. It had been snowing all morning and wasn't projected to stop until TOMORROW. Not just snow, but 30-50mph winds. That's a blizzard haha. After we planned (we planned to just shovel snow all day) we spent some time studying. Then around 9:30 we got to work on our driveway. We live with the Tenempaguays (ten-imp-uh-gwaye) and they're really cool members. They're a whole other story. But we got started cleaning their massive driveway...took only about 3 hours :) there was about a foot and a half of snow. Then we hopped in his truck and he took us to their deli they own, and we had lunch there. It was closed, but it's this nice little building called Village Deli. It reminds me of that deli in downtown Swansboro whose name I've forgotten.. but then we cleaned the snow from their deli so they can open tomorrow

Over the past 2 weeks our English class has exploded and we had TONS of people start coming, and since I'm the only one who seems to know english, I have the wonderful opportunity of teaching all the time!  But I like to teach so it is wonderful! We were able to get in touch with a very less-active family, and found out that the father is getting his Greencard this week! And he is getting a new job so he can come tochurch with his family. Awesome! Really cool thing happened the other day. After p-day (preparation day) ended the other week, we went finding. We had a referral (i think?) from the sisters, and we hadn’t visited them yet, so at close to 7:30 we head to this person’s house. Took us a long time to find it, and it was absolutely FREEZING outside, but once we found the correct door we were surprised at what we found! It was pitch black outside, in a really sketchy part of town, and this man (who I could have sworn was hispanic) opened the door. Both Elder Costa and Elder

We had zone conference today and it was really awesome. I learned a lot of really really cool things. Like: Always remember and apply “Good, Better, Best” especially with making goals and plans. If you knew that any goal you set, you could achieve...what would your goals be? (Now remember that with God, all things are possible) Goal setting is an act of faith. Showing that you believe that God can and will help you accomplish it Only think about the Do’s. (For example: if your goal is to eat healthy, don't think “don't eat cookies, don't eat cookies” think instead, “okay I can eat salad and chicken and fruits and apples!) Become comfortable with being uncomfortable, especially in missionary work. If you're comfortable, you can probably work harder.

Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered Prayers. You can spot a spoiled kid from a mile away. Always gets what he wants, if things don't go his way he’ll throw a fit until they do. Really prideful and stuck up. The parents that raised him, that pampered him, that gave him everything he wanted even though they knew it wasn't best for him, are they good parents?......yes. But could they be better parents?......Clearly.  If when things are not going my way, I could just say a prayer and then I'd love life again, am I truly growing? If I get mad at my dad (the big one upstairs) and yell and curse him and scream until things are better, did I learn?  Do I think that sometimes I pray for the wrong thing? Yes. Sometimes my Will and God's Will aren't the same. When that happens, I've obviously got some work to do. Maybe some repenting, some changing. But I know He loves me. I've felt it, I feel it all the time. So I know that whatever His Will, his