My New Golden

                                                  Elder Meyer made it to Brisbane!

8/22/2016

So the past week has been pretty busy and crazy with me picking up Elder Meyer and it being Elder Siliili's last week in the area. But I have really enjoyed my time with Elder Siliili, He helped me learn heaps and also we gained a lot of trust from the members because he is Samoan and he can speak it fluently! 

Last photo with me and Elder Siliili

On Tuesday we did a service project for a lady that we met door knocking (sorry I forgot to take pictures..) we had to go mow her back yard which was pretty much a jungle.... But it all worked out good because we got the bishop's younger sons to come with us and we made quick work of the yard. Wednesday we had a trade-off with the assistant to the president Elder Sunagawa (from Okinawa, Japan) pretty much because Elder Siliili convinced him that our area needed some help but that was pretty fun.  We went and door knocked most of the day and we did a lot of singing which was also pretty fun :) We also found out what Elder Siliili's last assignment is and that is to be a traveling assistant with Elder Sunagawa for the last three weeks because they are both going to leave for home in three weeks.  They will just go around the mission and do trade-offs. 

Then it was Thursday, which was when we were suppose to go pick up my new companion from the airport but on our way to the Brisbane city airport (45 minute drive w/o traffic) we got a call from the office saying that they didn't know where Elder Meyer was and that he had apparently missed a connecting flight but they still were not sure where he was...  They told us to go back to our area and just work. We said many prayers for him that day.  We got a call later in the day that he had missed a connecting flight from London to Singapore and that he would be into Brisbane by 6 or so that night. So we went and drove over there to go and finally pick him up! When we finally saw him and it was funny because one of the office sisters saw him and the first thing she did was give him a hug (picture included) Unfortunately he didn't have any of his bags because apparently they  were left in London... but now we have all of his bags but it was a bit dodgy for a day or two because he didn't have any extra clothes just what he was wearing.

Also another piece of news is that we still have the car!... but I am the driver... a little stressful because I'm not that great at driving especially in Australia.. We already accidentally backed into another car.... We also on Friday went to the mission office to get Elder Meyer interviewed by President and to pick up his luggage and President and Sister McSwain came with us to pick up his stuff (which wasn't even there yet like they said it was!)  Since we had some extra time President took us to dinner at a Thai restaurant which was awesome to have a dinner With the president!!! 

But man it has been a pretty crazy week!  My new companion Elder Meyer is the man! He speaks English really well for it being his first area. And he understands almost everything (he learned a lot of English in high school). He does have a pretty thick German accent (not quite like Dieter F Uchtdorf) but you can understand everything he says. He was  only in the MTC for 3 weeks.  He seems very prepared already and we get along really well :) He is also pretty funny! I just need to help him be a little less shy and just to share what the spirit prompts (which is what I am also working on... haha) But ya I'm excited for the work :) 

Love you all and have a great week!

-Elder Pierce