Out with a BANG and Germany part 2

                                                                    The Baptism 
                      (sorry the picture quality is a little bad but we kind of look celestial.. haha)
2/27/2017
Dear everyone,

So legit, so many things have happened that it is crazy! haha I'll try and capture it all. Also I forgot to mention but this past week was the last week of the transfer..... But the week was bitter sweet but mostly sweet! 

The first part of the week was normal stuff p-day as normal. Tuesday we had a district service for this old guy in our district leader's area where we cleaned his house. Wednesday we did some more service for Sister Rodriguez the older sister in our ward (the same one where i cut my wrist and had to go to the hospital) and then we had a meeting with our brand new ward mission leader who got called on Sunday.  Then Thursday was the day of baptismal interviews. We had our district leader come and do Anthony's interview and he will be baptized this Saturday upcoming ( but I won't be there....) and then later in the day we had our mission president come and do the interviews for Jamie, Kim-lee and Atlanta.  It was so cool they got to meet our mission president and he is such a great guy! The interview went well and they were all set for Saturday! But we had to make the baptismal program and they had the hardest time deciding who was going to baptize them either me or Elder Meyer so we ended up deciding to split and let one do the girls and the other do Jamie but then we actually had to flip a coin to decide who did what... haha and Kim was like WE ARE BETTING!! haha  So it came out that I did Jamie and Elder Meyer did Atlanta and Kim and the bishop did all of the confirmations at church! It was SOO awesome! 

Right after the baptism we had our ward activity which was a karaoke night which was so fun and of course since they were all Maori they were mean singers!

Also Elder Meyer has been feeling pretty sick the last few days which means that we are only able to go to our set appointments and the rest of the time let him sleep.. I feel bad for him but it is the way it goes sometime I guess. But then on Saturday night we got the call to tell us if we were getting transferred or not and they said........................... Elder Meyer staying and Elder Pierce going! .............................. but they didn't know where?? So it was really bitter sweet to have such cool amazing experiences and then to have to get up and leave. But I will go and do the things the Lord commands! Then Sunday was our last day and it was ward conference so I didn't get to give my testimony in the meeting and then we tried to say goodbye to as many people as we could but the time just kept slipping away but at least I got to say goodbye to Jamie and Kim and also Tenille. I know the Lord will continue to look out for them!

Saying goodbye to Tenille's family

Well I don't remember giving Nevaeh my camera but here is a picture she took with our car

Now I found out that I got transferred to Warwick (pronounced without the w in the middle) which is out in the bush... middle of no where! haha but it should be awesome! And my new companion is.......................... Elder Tewes (pronounced weird... kind of like Tay(but no so hard ay) vus) and guess what? he is also from Germany! haha Now I have had all the Germans in the mission for my companions! haha  Elder Meyer and I were cracking up when we found out he was going to be my companion. He is from the more southern part of Germany called Stuttgart and I checked neither Elder Meyer or Elder Tewes live near where Dieter F. Uchtdorf lived... oh well.. haha  We have already connected pretty well, we both love choir music and music and he is an amazing piano player! 

The drive up to my new area Warwick - it's such a pretty drive very bush and mountainy!

My new companion Elder Tewes (pronounced weird... kind of like Tay(but no so hard ay) vus) he is also from Germany

But I am excited to do the work here in my new area and I will tell you more about it next week!

Love, Elder Pierce

How'sitgoin?

                                           The wonderful wedding of Jamie and Kim'lee
2/20/2017
Dear everyone,

First, the subject of the letter is like a traditional Aussie greeting.  It should be "how is it going?" but they smash it all together really fast. 

But this past week has been awesome!! So other than the wedding on this Saturday, not much happened. We had a trade-off with our zone leaders on Thursday and it went pretty well it's always nice to have a switch up every once in a while!  After that Elder Meyer has been pretty sick for the week and we stayed in the flat some and let him get some rest.. because he has been throwing up a little bit and just not feeling great.  So we went to the doctor to get him checked out and the doctor said that he probably just has the flu but it was pretty cool because the doctor knew how to speak German so that was a cool little tender mercy of the Lord.

Other than that the wedding was really awesome!  It was pretty cool because we were in charge of like none of it so we just had to show up and be there! But it really was awesome they are making such awesome progress. I also was the witness for their wedding so I had to sign these legal forms! Pretty crazy!  We also gave some speeches as the best men but it was a good time overall!

But I love you all and hope you have a great week!     

 -Elder Pierce        

So I have heaps of videos but I can't send them because it takes to long for them to load.... 

the bishop and his family and a few other kids from the bishopric's family did this really cool Polynesian dance show but I only took videos so yup sorry.. haha 

But here are some pictures I got:

                                                                  Wedding Photos

                                                              Jamie and Kim'lee

                                               This is Jamie and Kim'lee's whole family-

 one of the sons was flown in from Darwin (the older boy who has brownish hair) to get to the wedding

                                                  The Wedding Party with the Best Men :)

                                                       I thought this photo was pretty funny :P

Can I be a best man...??

                       The Coomera Stake Center Chapel            

2/14/2017

 Dear everyone,

   To start sorry that I am emailing a day late, it is because we had interviews with the mission president so they made today p-day for us. But I feel like the Lord is continually blessing me and Elder Meyer! Other than the heat because there has been a heat wave that has made it no lower than 37 (99 'ish degrees Fahrenheit).... haha that is the real deal heat. 

But I'll just get into some of the stuff that has happened this past week. Last Monday was really fun because we went to President's house and played games and what not and had dinner not to mention

My Zone at President McSwain's house

it was sister McSwain's birthday so we got to sing to her! But then this week was super good because we finished all of the missionary lessons for Jamie and Kim'lee! and on the last lesson we brought the bishop and his wife on the lesson and it was soo good because we taught about temples and family history and it was really cool to once again hear how the aboriginal culture mixes with the church! They talked with the bishop and the final plan is this: that they will be married this week on Saturday and then they will be baptized with their 11 year old daughter Atlanta next Saturday! And to top it all off Jamie asked me and Elder Meyer if we could be the best men of his wedding! and he was like can you do that? and we were like......... uhh I don't know if we can but we would honored to! so i asked president in my interview yesterday and he initially said no but then he was like, well there is nothing in the rules that say that you can't do that.. so I will call you if I find out if you can't but if i don't say anything then.... just do it. haha And i reminded him how we were agents unto ourselves and he laughed haha. 

Other than that we are just moving along and we also found out that Tenille's oldest son Anthony went to mutual last week and just announced to everyone that he wanted to be baptized! So that will be good when we can set that up.  I think it's also been a really cool blessing to stay in this ward so long because we have been able to see the progress of it and our recent converts, Tenille and her family. They have so many friends in the church and it is just so awesome! 

Sorry I don't have any more time to email but the week has been good and I know the Lord is watching out for us! but I love you all and hope that you have a great week!

-Elder Pierce

                                                       Some pics from Elder Meyer's camera

Time flies!

                                                        Elder Pierce and Elder Meyer

2/6/2017

Dear everyone,

So the week has been pretty good, man I tell you time flies!  I feel like I was just writing an email to y'all yesterday. 

But I'll get into the week, So Monday was really awesome because our ward mission leader invited our investigators Jamie and Kim'lee to a dinner at their house and invited the bishops family as well. So that was really awesome and it was sooo good because Jamie and Kim'lee are aboriginal and so is Sister Matenga, so she was able how to tell that their culture mixes so well with the church! Sister Matenga said that even in their history that there was a white god with a beard that came down and ministered to them and taught them! Way cool to see about how Christ ministered to his lost sheep! 

I was also able to go on a trade off on Tuesday with some other missionaries that are not leaders because they are teaching a German investigator so Elder Meyer was allowed to go with them and I was with Elder Tiahou (I don't know how to spell it) but he is Tahitian so it was cool because he even knew Elder Parker (my first companion/trainer) before his mission. 

But I feel like there is too much to type it all but it has been good! Jamie and Kim'lee are thinking to get married and baptized on the same day on the 18th so we are pretty excited! Also today is a full day p-day because our zone hit our goal for baptisms so tonight we are going to go to President's house and have dinner with them! Pretty awesome! 

But I love ya all and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Pierce 

                 

        (here are some pictures sorry I don't have time for descriptions but hope ya like them)