2nd Week

Elder Parker and Elder Pierce in front of the Brisbane skyline.

4/11/2016

So I am glad to say that this week I have more time to email and it is actually on our official p-day! So to start off my companion is Elder Parker He is from Tahiti, he has been out on his mission for about 14 months and he originally speaks French and Tahitian. He is a crazy fit dude who is very humble and reminds me of Christian at times (like when he did 39 pull ups in a minute and then proceeded to say how that was terrible.. hahaha) He is a very hard worker and always keeps me going especially when we are walking and/or biking. He is a little odd at times like he likes to catch the flies with his hands and there are some cultural differences like if he has to go to the bathroom he will just go.... even if it is like in someones yard.... haha. But his English is pretty great there are just a few times where I don't get what he is saying.  President Henderson told me to help him work on his English sometimes. But we get along really well and we have fun and I am learning heaps from him especially when we go tracting he is always good about just talking with the random people it's pretty cool. 

Our area Camira is not that big so we are a full time walk/bike area and the only thing is that it is very hot and I usually come into the people's houses drenched in sweat because of all of the biking in the heat and they are usually like, "Elder Pierce do you need some water??" ( which I am very grateful for) But ya most of the people we talk to are islanders of some sort because the Auzzies usually just say, " no worries, all good I don't believe in God, never have never will, I just go with the flow and have no goals in life......." Me and Elder Parker live in a flat all by ourselves (not too far from other missionaries's flats though.) There is no air conditioning in our flat just some ceiling fans and a few other fans... So it is pretty warm in the flat. 

Eating dinner at the flat.

But here is our daily schedule: 6:15 wake up pray and then 6:30 we go for a run and then when we get back we do this exercise program that is called snap gravity which was made for the Australia Brisbane mission. I sent a picture of the program it's on dropbox. But then we go out and do regular missionary stuff like tracting and appointments. Then usually around dinner time on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday we are supposed to be fed by ward members and not the rest of the week but we are usually fed every day because if you stop by a Samoan members house they will always feed you something... ALWAYS hahahaha it is just part of their culture and it rude to reject it. So we usually eat always taro which is like a Samoan potato (they say that taro is what makes them so big) I don't much like taro.. hahaha But I have also eaten horse here twice so far it is not bad! and they also really like KFC here in Australia like a lot. They have burger king here too but it is called Hungry Jacks. And of course McDonald's (they refer to it as Mackers) But ya also our mission has 220 missionaries and 23 foreign languages. 

Opening Birthday presents!

Also thank everyone for the birth day wishes :) it made me happy to see them all!! and on the mission website australiabrisbanemission.com  there are some pictures that I am in for the "golden" orientation (we call greenies golden in this mission) which was awesome and we had lots of training and stuff from the assistants and president. This week has been very crazy with it being general conference and just everything with golden orientation just super busy and lots of confusion about rides to places and such since Elder Parker and I don't have a car (which is not all that bad because I would be the driver since I have a license) Conference though was awesome!!! I especially enjoyed Saturday morning session as well as all of the talks about how the sacrament is so important. But there are a decent amount of steep hills here in our area and sometimes they are hard to bike up.. But I still very much so like the biking more than walking. I actually like the biking :) Also I don't have have that much time to put descriptions for the pictures... but some of them are me and Elder Parker at Brisbane city and a couple of elders in my zone and then one of the facts that they do sell peanut butter here. Also I love all of my presents!! Especially Ritz crackers!!! I don't know if they don't have them here but I haven't found them.

I love it here even though it's hot... haha Also we are working on our teaching pool at the moment and we have like a few investigators but we are just working with them all most of them have the concern for church attendance... So that's why I liked lots of their talks in conference. Also Elder Parker and I have been doing a lot of work with the bishops son who is an rm and he served in Adelaide but he has been helping us a lot and he reminds me of Riley. There is also a video of Elder Parker and the son Alex Togia sparing. But ya  we also had a lesson with an investigator after conference and he is pretty solid the only thing is he lives in a different area so we are working about that.. hahaha But ya sorry I can't type fast enough.., but that's all :) the church is true :)

-Elder Pierce

                                                  The Book Of Mormon in Samoan

The Australian Dollar